Labor Market
Private-sector employers added 86,000 jobs in October, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday, Nov. 4, by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. ADP also revised its September figure down to 86,000 from the 90,000 it first reported on Sept. 30, which leaves October’s gain level with the month before.
ADP described October as a second month of solid hiring with steady pay gains, but flagged weak spots. The clearest one: professional and business services lost 27,000 jobs, the third straight monthly decline in that sector by ADP’s count, after a loss of 11,000 in its September report.
“Employers of all sizes were hiring last month, and our data suggests that job-changers were lured by a combination of bonuses, overtime, and more hours in addition to higher base pay,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist. “Taken together, earnings growth for these workers hit its fastest pace since March 2024.”
Where the jobs were
Service-providing industries added 82,000 jobs and goods producers 4,000. Trade, transportation and utilities led with 39,000, after being flat in ADP’s September report. Education and health services added 28,000, leisure and hospitality 19,000, financial activities 15,000 and other services 10,000. Information lost 2,000.
On the goods side, construction added 13,000 jobs, manufacturing lost 1,000, and natural resources and mining lost 8,000. In September, by contrast, ADP had reported manufacturing up 17,000 and education and health services up 55,000, so the mix of industries behind a similar headline number shifted noticeably from one month to the next.
Regionally, the South accounted for the largest share, adding 47,000 jobs, including 35,000 in the West South Central division and 15,000 in the South Atlantic division, which includes Georgia. The West added 28,000, almost all of it in the Pacific division (27,000). The Midwest added 9,000 and the Northeast 3,000; New England lost 3,000. ADP does not break the South Atlantic figure out by state or metro area in this release.
By establishment size, the gains were more evenly spread than in September. Medium establishments with 50 to 499 employees added 33,000 jobs, large establishments with 500 or more added 24,000, and small establishments with fewer than 50 added 28,000, including 21,000 at the smallest sites with one to 19 workers. ADP rounds each grouping separately, so the regional and size totals do not sum exactly to 86,000.
Pay: changing jobs paid more, mostly beyond base pay
ADP Pay Insights, which tracks the same workers’ pay over 12-month periods, put median base pay growth for all private-sector workers at 3.2% year over year in October. Job-stayers saw 3.0% and job-changers 4.8%, the same rates ADP reported for September.
The difference was in gross pay, which includes items such as bonuses and overtime. Median gross pay rose 4.7% for all workers and 4.4% for job-stayers, matching September, while job-changers’ gross pay growth rose to 7.6% from 7.3%. That gap between base and gross pay for people who switched jobs is what Richardson pointed to in describing bonuses, overtime and extra hours as part of the draw.
By industry, median base pay growth ranged from 3.0% in information, education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and other services to 4.0% in construction.
What the numbers measure
ADP’s report is built from anonymized weekly payroll data covering more than 26 million private-sector employees; Pay Insights draws on more than 14.7 million year-over-year pay-change observations a month. The monthly report counts net payroll changes in a reference week that includes the 12th of the month, according to ADP; it is not a count of job postings or hires, and it excludes government employment. ADP’s October release does not label the monthly figures’ seasonal treatment; its weekly NER Pulse companion series is published seasonally adjusted.
ADP’s report is an independent private estimate, not the government’s payroll survey, and the two often differ. ADP said its November report will be released Dec. 2 at 8:15 a.m. Eastern.
Sources
- ADP, “ADP National Employment Report: Private-Sector Employment Increased by 86,000 Jobs in October,” November 4, 2026. https://mediacenter.adp.com/2026-11-04-ADP-National-Employment-Report-Private-Sector-Employment-Increased-by-86,000-Jobs-in-October
- ADP, “ADP National Employment Report: Private-Sector Employment Increased by 90,000 Jobs in September,” September 30, 2026. https://mediacenter.adp.com/2026-09-30-ADP-National-Employment-Report-Private-Sector-Employment-Increased-by-90,000-Jobs-in-September
- ADP, “ADP National Employment Report Preliminary Estimate for October 3, 2026,” October 20, 2026. https://mediacenter.adp.com/2026-10-20-ADP-National-Employment-Report-Preliminary-Estimate-for-October-3,-2026
Featured photo: Oakridge Place Shopping Center in Metairie, Louisiana, June 22, 2026. Representative image of private-sector retail employment; not an employer in ADP's sample. Photo: Infrogmation, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
