ADP: Private Employers Added 86,000 Jobs in October, Topping Forecasts

Hiring among private employers stayed consistent in October, with job gains spread across multiple industries and fresh indications that the labor market is settling into steadier footing, payrolls processor ADP reported Wednesday.

Companies added 86,000 positions during the month, matching September's downwardly revised figure and coming in modestly above the 75,000 gain economists polled by Dow Jones had anticipated.

Service providers drove the bulk of the hiring. Trade, transportation and utilities led all sectors with 39,000 new positions, followed by education and health services with 28,000 and leisure and hospitality with 19,000. Financial activities added 15,000 jobs, construction gained 13,000 and other services contributed 10,000.

Those advances were partly offset by losses elsewhere. Professional and business services shed 27,000 jobs, natural resources and mining lost 8,000, and information services, a category potentially affected by the artificial intelligence buildout, declined by 2,000.

Wage growth remained firm, especially for workers switching employers. Job changers saw annual pay gains of 4.8%, and a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Tuesday showed quits, a measure of worker mobility, reaching their highest point since March 2025.

Overall, base pay rose 3.2% from a year earlier, gross pay climbed 4.7% annually and workers who stayed in their roles received a 3% increase.

"Employers of all sizes were hiring last month, and our data suggests that job-changers were lured by a combination of bonuses, overtime, and more hours in addition to higher base pay," said Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist. "Taken together, earnings growth for these workers hit its fastest pace since March 2024."

Hiring was distributed across company sizes. Mid-sized firms employing 50 to 499 people added 33,000 workers, large businesses contributed 24,000 and small companies expanded their payrolls by 28,000.

The ADP figures arrive ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' official nonfarm payrolls report due Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect that count to show October job growth of 59,000, up from September's modest 29,000 increase.