ADP said a net 86,000 private sector jobs were added in October, 19,000 above the estimate and the same pace as seen in September. Encouragingly, employers of all sizes saw job growth, highlights Peter Boockvar, editor of The Boock Report.
Sector-wise in services, trade/transportation/utilities was the biggest contributor, adding 39,000. That was followed by education/health, up 28,000...leisure/hospitality, up 19,000...and “other,” up by 10,000. On the flip side, 27,000 jobs were lost in professional/business services and 2,000 jobs were lost in information.
Source: Trading Economics
With goods, hiring was all driven by construction. Jobs rose by 13,000 there. That was mostly offset by a decline of 8,000 in natural resources/mining and 1,000 in manufacturing.
With respect to wages, the median increase for “job stayers” was 3%, the same pace seen in September. For “job changers,” it held at 4.8%, which remains the best since July 2025.
Bottom line: Private sector job growth was good in October relative to the new normal, which includes a more subdued increase in the labor force. Some pockets of weakness were seen as stated, but overall we saw good job growth in the month.
Certainly much is related to the data center buildout, which helped construction and the trade/transportation/utility component (along with healthcare).
