• Prior was +109K (revised to +105K)

Details:

• Goods -3K versus +15K last month
• Service +36K versus +94K last month
• Small business +49K vs +65K prior
• Medium businesses +10K vs +2K last month
• Large businesses +40K vs +42K last month

Wages:

• Wages for job stayers 4.4% vs 4.4% last month
• Wages for job changers 6.5% vs 6.6% last month

This number is very close to consensus and is essentially in-line with expectations. In terms of the macro, that’s a good sign that the US economy is solid, if not turning towards strength.

ADP said hiring was more broad-based than they’ve seen in recent years and is showing sustained momentum.

This report adds to some of this week’s optimism after a very strong JOLTS report and a good ISM manufacturing report. I see increasing risks that the US is headed towards an inflation problem fuelled by high deficits, tariffs, low immigration, the AI capex boom and a cyclical improvement.

For background, the ADP National Employment Report tracks monthly changes in US private-sector employment, drawn from aggregated and anonymized payroll data covering more than 26 million employees, produced by ADP Research with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. It lands two days ahead of the BLS nonfarm payrolls print, though the two series correlate poorly and ADP is best read as its own signal rather than a payrolls preview.

April delivered the strongest headline in over a year: private companies added 109,000 jobs, up from 61,000 in March and well above the Dow Jones consensus of 84,000. It was the largest increase since January 2025. But the internals tell the familiar low-hire, low-fire story. Education and health services again dominated with 61,000, trade/transportation/utilities added 25,000, and construction rose 10,000. Manufacturing managed just 2,000 despite reshoring efforts, and professional and business services shed 8,000.

The size breakdown flagged the soft middle: small firms (under 50) added 65,000 and large ones (500+) added 42,000, with weakness concentrated among mid-sized employers. The six-month moving average sits near 60,000 — firm enough to keep the Fed patient on cuts.

This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.