U.S. Private Employers Add 90,000 Jobs in September, ADP Says

U.S. private employers added 90,000 jobs in September, a sharp pickup from August’s revised 36,000 increase, according to ADP. The gain marked the first acceleration in private-sector hiring since May and offered a stronger reading after three months in which job creation had slowed.

The headline improvement was not evenly spread across the economy. Education and health services accounted for most of the service-sector increase, while leisure and hospitality also added jobs. Financial activities and professional and business services moved in the opposite direction. ADP also reported that median base pay for private-sector workers rose 3.2% from a year earlier, while median gross pay increased 4.7%.

ADP’s September National Employment Report, produced by ADP Research with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, is based on anonymized weekly payroll records covering more than 26 million U.S. private-sector employees. ADP chief economist Nela Richardson characterized the report as strong, saying job creation had rebounded after a three-month slowdown while pay growth remained solid.

Education and health services led the September gains

Service-providing employers added 59,000 jobs in September, while goods-producing employers added 31,000. Within services, education and health services increased payrolls by 55,000 and leisure and hospitality added 22,000. Other services contributed 6,000 jobs and information added 3,000, while trade, transportation and utilities was unchanged.

Two large white-collar categories weakened. Financial activities lost 16,000 jobs, and professional and business services shed 11,000. Those declines matter because they show that the stronger aggregate number did not amount to a broad-based improvement across every major industry group.

Hiring in goods-producing industries was firmer. Manufacturing added 17,000 jobs and construction added 15,000, while natural resources and mining declined by 1,000. The mix helped lift the overall total even as parts of the service economy remained soft.

The regional figures also showed an uneven pattern. The Northeast added 56,000 jobs, including 47,000 in the Mid-Atlantic. The West gained 17,000, the South added 11,000 and the Midwest increased by 5,000. Within those broad regions, several subregions still posted declines, including the South Atlantic and East North Central.

Medium-size establishments accounted for most of the increase

Medium-size establishments were the largest contributor by employer size, adding 54,000 jobs. Establishments with 250 to 499 employees accounted for 36,000 of that increase, while those with 50 to 249 employees added 18,000. Small establishments added 23,000 jobs, and large establishments with at least 500 employees added 14,000.

September’s gain also followed a downward revision to the prior month. ADP cut its August estimate to 36,000 jobs from the 38,000 initially reported. The company says prior-month estimates can change as additional payroll activity arrives from clients with different pay schedules, including weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly payrolls.

Beginning with the September release, ADP said its National Employment Report incorporates first-quarter 2026 Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August. ADP uses QCEW employment distributions to help weight its payroll sample across industries, states and establishment-size categories, while still producing a much timelier measure from its own payroll records.

That distinction is important when interpreting the report. ADP describes the National Employment Report as an independent measure of private-sector employment, not a forecast of the government’s monthly nonfarm payroll report. The two series use different data and methods, so the 90,000 September ADP estimate should be read as a separate labor-market indicator rather than as a prediction of the coming federal jobs number.

Pay growth remained positive ahead of the federal jobs report

ADP’s expanded pay data showed median base pay rising 3.2% year over year for all workers in September. Base pay increased 3.0% for people who stayed in the same job and 4.8% for people who changed jobs. The gap indicates that job changers continued to receive faster base-pay growth than stayers, although the report does not by itself establish why individual workers changed jobs or how much of the difference reflects occupation, industry or other characteristics.

Gross pay, which ADP defines more broadly to include base pay plus bonuses, commissions, tips and other earnings, rose 4.7% from a year earlier. Gross pay increased 4.4% for job stayers and 7.3% for job changers. ADP introduced the separate base-pay and gross-pay measures in its August report to give a wider view of compensation trends.

Among major sectors, construction recorded the strongest median base-pay increase at 4.0%. Manufacturing and financial activities were both at 3.5%, while trade, transportation and utilities was at 3.4%. Professional and business services registered 3.2%, and several service categories, including education and health services and leisure and hospitality, were at 3.0%.

The next major comparison point is the federal employment report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics release calendar schedules the September Employment Situation for October 2 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. That report will include government estimates for both private and public payroll employment, along with unemployment and other labor-market measures.

ADP’s next monthly National Employment Report is scheduled for November 4. Between the monthly releases, the company also publishes weekly NER Pulse estimates based on a four-week moving average, giving another view of how private employment is evolving before the October monthly reading arrives.