Private sector added 98K jobs in June as pay grew 4.4%

Private sector employers added 98,000 jobs in June, down from 122,000 in May, while annual pay grew 4.4% year over year, ADP reported Wednesday.

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The bulk of the job gains occurred in service-providing businesses, which added 96,000 jobs, including 2,000 in professional and business services such as accounting and tax preparation, 14,000 in financial activities such as banking, 48,000 in education and health services, and 2,000 in the leisure and hospitality industry.

The goods-producing sector gained 2,000 jobs in June, including 5,000 in manufacturing and 2,000 in construction, minus 5,000 lost in the natural resources and mining industry.

Small businesses with between one and 19 employees added 38,000 jobs, while businesses with between 20 and 49 employees gained 15,000. Medium establishments with between 50 and 249 employees added 19,000 jobs, while companies with between 250 and 499 employees gained 10,000. Large establishments with 500 employees or more added 25,000 jobs. 

The median pay gain for employees who stayed in their jobs held steady at 4.4%, while year-over-year pay growth for those who changed jobs accelerated to 6.6%. In the professional and business services sector, the rate for job stayers was 4.1%.

“If I were to summarize the labor market story in June, I would say that it was steady, but it lacked the broad based acceleration that we saw in May,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson during a conference call Wednesday with reporters. “I was really excited by the May report because we got contributions from almost every industry, and it seemed like it was gaining momentum that would turn this low hire, low fire labor market into something more dynamic and more consistently accelerating. We didn’t get that this month, but what we got was a lot of stability, and maybe given everything — all the crosswinds, demographic effects, AI effectsand global effects that could be impacting hiring — we should take some stability as we end the first half of the year.”

She noted that every sector has pockets of supply constraint now due to a broad demographic push of retirees, including accountants, who often work with ADP.

“It is clear that accounting is one of those professions that’s a white-collar job where we’re not seeing young people go into it,” she added. “The way I try to think about this is anytime, anyplace you see infrastructure in the economy, whether it’s physical infrastructure, the social care infrastructure, education and health care, or the financial infrastructure, we’re seeing shortages, and that’s an interesting place to be, and hopefully build on for the second half of the year.”