The pace of job creation by private companies accelerated in October, but still came in below estimates.
New jobs in October totaled 113,000, an increase from 89,000 in September and well below the 180,000 of August, payroll processing company ADP said in a statement Wednesday. The number was below the estimate of 150,000 in a Reuters’ survey of economists.
Annual pay rose 5.7% from a year earlier, after the gain of 5.9% in September. It was the 13th consecutive month of slowdown and the smallest increase since October 2021.
“Big post-pandemic pay increases seem to be behind us,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said. “In all, October’s numbers paint a well-rounded jobs picture. And while the labor market has slowed, it’s still enough to support strong consumer spending.”
The American economy more than doubled its pace of expansion in the third quarter as consumer spending remained solid. Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 4.9% in the three months ended in September, fastest growth since the 7% rate in the fourth quarter of 2021.
ADP captures data from the payroll of its clients, with a cohort of almost 10 million workers, to show a picture of the private job market in the U.S.
Education and health services was the group that created most jobs in October, with 45,000 positions.
JOLTs
Another report released Wednesday showed that U.S. job openings were little changed at the end of September.
Job openings were at 9.55 million, from 9.50 in September, according to the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover, or JOLTs. The number was higher than economists’ estimate of 9.4 million. But the data for September was revised downward from an initial reading of 9.6 million.
The Labor Department releases Friday the data for jobs and unemployment for the month of October. In September, the number of new jobs jumped to 336,000, the highest in eight months, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%.
