Private sector employment increased by 37,000 jobs in May and annual pay was up 4.5 percent year-over-year, according to the May ADP® National Employment ReportTM produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab (“Stanford Lab”). The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure and high-frequency view of the private-sector labor market based on actual, anonymized payroll data of more than 25 million U.S. employees.
The jobs report and pay insights use ADP’s fine-grained anonymized and aggregated payroll data to provide a representative picture of the private-sector labor market. The report details the current month’s total private employment change, and weekly job data from the previous month. Because the underlying ADP payroll databases are continuously updated, the report provides a high-frequency, near real-time measure of U.S. employment. This measure reflects the number of employees on ADP client payrolls (Payroll Employment) to provide a richer understanding of the labor market. 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.
“After a strong start to the year, hiring is losing momentum,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Pay growth, however, was little changed in May, holding at robust levels for both job-stayers and job-changers.”
May 2025 Report Highlights*
View the ADP National Employment Report and interactive charts at www.adpemploymentreport.com.
JOBS REPORT
Private employers added 37,000 jobs in May
The pace of hiring in May reached its lowest level since March 2023.
Change in U.S. Private Employment: 37,000
Change by Industry Sector
– Goods-producing: -2,000
- Natural resources/mining -5,000
- Construction 6,000
- Manufacturing -3,000
– Service-providing: 36,000
- Trade/transportation/utilities -4,000
- Information 8,000
- Financial activities 20,000
- Professional/business services -17,000
- Education/health services -13,000
- Leisure/hospitality 38,000
- Other services 4,000
Change by U.S. Regions
– Northeast: -19,000
- New England -16,000
- Middle Atlantic -3,000
– Midwest: 20,000
- East North Central 23,000
- West North Central -3,000
– South: -5,000
- South Atlantic 20,000
- East South Central 19,000
- West South Central -44,000
– West: 37,000
- Mountain 35,000
- Pacific 2,000
Change by Establishment Size
– Small establishments: -13,000
- 1-19 employees -6,000
- 20-49 employees -7,000
– Medium establishments: 49,000
- 50-249 employees 51,000
- 250-499 employees -2,000
– Large establishments: -3,000
- 500+ employees -3,000
PAY INSIGHTS
Pay gains were little changed in May
Year-over-year pay growth for job-stayers was little changed in May, at 4.5 percent. Pay for job-changers rose 7 percent, unchanged from April’s revised figure.
Median Change in Annual Pay (ADP matched person sample)
– Job-Stayers 4.5%
– Job-Changers 7.0%
Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Industry Sector
– Goods-producing:
- Natural resources/mining 4.5%
- Construction 4.6%
- Manufacturing 4.6%
– Service-providing:
- Trade/transportation/utilities 4.2%
- Information 4.2%
- Financial activities 5.2%
- Professional/business services 4.2%
- Education/health services 4.6%
- Leisure/hospitality 4.8%
- Other services 4.3%
Median Change in Annual Pay for Job-Stayers by Firm Size
– Small firms:
- 1-19 employees 2.6%
- 20-49 employees 4.1%
– Medium firms:
- 50-249 employees 4.8%
- 250-499 employees 4.9%
– Large firms:
- 500+ employees 4.8%