Private payrolls rose by 177,000 in August following an upwardly revised 371,000 increase in the prior month, according to figures published Wednesday by the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 195,000 advance.
The figures, on the heels of a decline in job openings, illustrate a labor market that is gradually downshifting. Though many employers are reluctant to shed jobs, some are scaling back hiring while others are cutting hours to reduce costs. Those dynamics are helping ease some of the upward pressures on wages. Workers who stayed in their job saw a 5.9% median pay increase in August from a year ago, the smallest advance since 2021. For those who changed jobs, the median rise in annual pay was 9.5%.