U.S. Hiring Kept Slowing at End of Year as Labor Market Loosens

Published: 2025-01-08 08:50:15 ET ADP

By Joshua Kirby

Hiring in the private sector lost pace again last month, adding to signs of greater slack in a tight jobs market.

Private businesses added 122,000 jobs in December, down from 146,000 a month earlier and marking a second month of fewer new positions, according to the ADP National Employment report released Wednesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected 136,000 new jobs to be opened up in December.

"The labor market downshifted to a more modest pace of growth in the final month of 2024," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

Salary gains also lost steam in December, with those staying in their jobs booking the slimmest pay rises in nearly three and half years. That offers some relief for Federal Reserve policymakers still wary of upward pressure on consumer prices from robust pay packets.

Slower hiring comes on the back of similar signs of growing slack in a labor market that has proved a strong one for workers in recent years. Fewer Americans quit their jobs in November, the latest data show, suggesting jobholders are seeing diminishing opportunities elsewhere. Unemployed white-collar workers in particular are struggling to find new roles, meanwhile, with more than 1.6 million searching for more than six months, according to research published earlier this month.

The services industry added the lion's share of the new jobs in December, ADP's report showed, with education & health services leading the way, followed by leisure & hospitality. The manufacturing industry by contrast shed jobs for a third month consecutively.

Write to Joshua Kirby at [email protected]; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-08-25 0850ET