MW Private sector shed jobs in late October, new weekly ADP data shows
By Greg Robb
A cyclist rides past a "now hiring" sign posted on a business storefront in San Gabriel, Calif.
The private-sector job market contracted slightly in late October, according to a new report from payroll-processing firm ADP.
Private-sector employers shed an average of 11,250 jobs a week in the four weeks ending Oct. 25, ADP said.
The monthly ADP data showed privately run businesses creating 42,000 new jobs in October - the first increase in three months. But that was front-loaded, as that job growth was concentrated at the beginning of October, and petered out at the end of the month - "suggesting that the labor market struggled to produce jobs consistently during the second half of the month."
Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, called the October bounce in hiring tepid and not broad-based.
ADP announced last month that it would publish a weekly estimate of the ADP National Employment report every Tuesday based on its high-frequency data.
Alternative data on the health of the labor market have become more important with the lack of government data due to the U.S. government shutdown.
Economists say job growth has been tepid at best since September, and the unemployment rate could have risen.
Read: Is the U.S. jobs market tanking? Here's what the latest clues say
The shutdown is expected to end this week. Economists want to know when the government plans to release its estimates of job growth for the past two months.
How the Federal Reserve perceives the labor market will be critical in its decision whether to cut interest rates again at its meeting on Dec. 10.
-Greg Robb
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November 11, 2025 09:18 ET (14:18 GMT)
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