Private sector employment in the United States grew by 155,000 jobs in March, while annual pay increased 4.6% year-over-year, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report produced in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The report offers a high-frequency, independent view of the labor market using anonymized payroll data from more than 25 million U.S. employees.

“Despite policy uncertainty and downbeat consumers, the bottom line is this: The March topline number was a good one for the economy and employers of all sizes, if not necessarily all sectors,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

Job Gains by Sector and Region

March’s job growth was driven primarily by the service-providing sector, which added 132,000 jobs. The goods-producing sector contributed an additional 24,000 positions.

Goods-producing industries:

Manufacturing: +21,000
Construction: +6,000
Natural resources/mining: -3,000

Service-providing industries:

Professional/business services: +57,000
Financial activities: +38,000
Leisure/hospitality: +17,000
Education/health services: +12,000
Other services: +11,000
Information: +3,000
Trade/transportation/utilities: -6,000

Regionally, the Northeast led with 89,000 new jobs, including 57,000 in New England and 32,000 in the Middle Atlantic. The Midwest followed with 81,000 jobs, most of which came from the East North Central division.

Regional employment changes:

Northeast: +89,000
Midwest: +81,000
South: +27,000
West: -41,000

In the West, employment declined by 12,000 in the Mountain region and by 29,000 in the Pacific region.

Hiring by Establishment Size

Job gains were spread across businesses of all sizes:

Small establishments (1-49 employees): +52,000
Medium establishments (50-499 employees): +43,000
Large establishments (500+ employees): +59,000

Among small firms, those with 1–19 employees contributed the most, with 42,000 jobs added. Medium-sized businesses with 50–249 employees added 34,000 jobs.

Pay Insights

ADP’s pay data showed a slowdown in wage growth. Job-stayers saw a 4.6% increase in annual pay, while job-changers experienced a 6.5% increase. The 1.9 percentage point premium for job-changers matched a series low last seen in September.

Pay gains for job-stayers by industry:

Manufacturing: 4.8%
Financial activities: 5.3%
Construction, education/health services, leisure/hospitality: 4.7%
Other services: 4.4%
Professional/business services: 4.4%
Trade/transportation/utilities: 4.3%
Natural resources/mining: 4.3%
Information: 4.0%

Pay gains for job-stayers by firm size:

Small firms (1–19 employees): 2.9%
Small firms (20–49 employees): 4.2%
Medium firms (50–249 employees): 4.8%
Medium firms (250–499 employees): 5.0%
Large firms (500+ employees): 4.9%

As of January 2025, ADP’s Pay Insights measure captures nearly 14.8 million individual pay change observations each month, up from nearly 10 million when it launched. The data provides near real-time insights into the private sector labor market.

This article, “ADP: Private Sector Adds 155,000 Jobs in March; Annual Pay Up 4.6%” was first published on Small Business Trends