Feb. 4 (UPI) — Private companies added 22,000 jobs in January, half as much as the consensus forecast predicted, the ADP National Employment Report said Wednesday.
The service industry makes up 21,000 of the new jobs, with education and health services adding the most, with 74,000 new jobs. This helped offset a loss of 57,000 jobs in the professional and business services, as well as losses in information and other services.
“Job creation took a step back in 2025, with private employers adding 398,000 jobs, down from 771,000 in 2024,” Nela Richardson, chief economist for the firm Always Designing for People, said in a statement. “While we’ve seen a continuous and dramatic slowdown in job creation for the past three years, wage growth has remained stable.”
The latest report continued a 2025 trend of slower-than-expected job growth into the new year. Wage gains also moved little.
Tuesday’s report is an independent labor market report based on anonymous payroll data from 26 million employees in the private sector.
Goods-producing jobs were up 1,000 but the manufacturing industry lost 8,000 jobs.
The most job growth happened in the Midwest, where 25,000 jobs were added. The West and South regions posted losses of 11,000 and 10,000, respectively.
The median salary change for people who stayed in their jobs was 4.5%, while people changing jobs had a median 6.4% change in salary. The highest median salary change by industry for those who stayed in their jobs was 5.2% in financial activities and 5% in manufacturing.