Private-sector employment added 145,000 jobs in March, and annual pay growth decelerated to 6.9% year-over-year, according to the March ADP National Employment Report produced by the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
“Our March payroll data is one of several signals that the economy is slowing,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in a statement. “Employers are pulling back from a year of strong hiring and pay growth, after a three-month plateau, is inching down.”
Health services/education companies added 17,000 jobs in March, and the leisure/hospitality sector created 98,000 jobs, according to the report. Professional/business services businesses lost a total of 46,000 jobs.
The jobs report and pay insights use ADP’s anonymized and aggregated payroll data of more than 25 million US employees.
According to data published Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment rates were lower in February than a year earlier in 228 of 389 metropolitan areas, higher in 131 areas and unchanged in 30 areas.
The Northeast was the region where the highest number of jobs was created, at 141,000, followed by the Midwest at 132,000 and the West at 95,000. Meanwhile, 228,000 jobs were lost in the South.
Large firms with 500 or more employees gained 10,000 jobs. Small businesses with one to 49 employees gained 101,000 jobs, and medium-sized companies with 50 to 499 employees added just 33,000 jobs.
Pay gains decelerate
Pay growth decelerated in March for both job-stayers and job-changers. For job-stayers, year-over-year gains fell to 6.9% from 7.2% in February; for job-changers, gains fell to 14.2% from 14.4% the previous month.
Small firms with one to 19 employees saw the smallest median change in annual pay, at 5.5%. The change was 6.9% for firms with 20 to 49 employees, 7.2% for firms with 50 to 249 employees, 7.1% for firms with 250 to 499 employees, and 7% at firms with 500 or more employees.
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