Private sector employment increased by 63,000 jobs in February, the best showing for job gains since July 2025, and pay rose 4.5% year-over-year according to the February ADP National Employment Report produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure of the labor market based on the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees in the United States. The private jobs report in years past had been a harbinger of the monthly jobs report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the first Friday of each month. That report includes public job changes as well as private job changes.
“We’ve seen an increase in hiring and pay gains remain solid, especially for job-stayers,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “But with hiring concentrated in only a few sectors, our data shows no widespread pay benefit from changing jobs. In fact, the pay premium for switching employers hit a record low in February.”
Construction and education and health services were the sectors that led the growth. Construction added 19,000 jobs in February. Education/health services generated 58,000 positions last month.
By region, the South and the West produced the most job increases. 37,000 jobs were created in the South in February and 19,000 were produced in the West. The Northeast generated 11,000 jobs. The Midwest was the only area to shed jobs, losing 4,000.
Small businesses were the biggest job creators, generating 60,000 jobs for those establishments of 1 to 49 employees.
The January total number of jobs added was revised to 11,000 from 22,000 by ADP.
