Small businesses gained 58,000 jobs in September, according to the ADP National Employment Report, issued in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
Overall, combining small, medium and large businesses, job growth during September was 208,000. The growth comes on the heels of a 185,000 jobs gain during August.
ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson called it “steady growth.”
Jobs Report for October: Smallest Businesses Add 45K Jobs
Small business from 1-19 employees saw the biggest increase, adding 45,000 jobs. Small businesses from 20-48 employees increased by 13,000 jobs.
Wages have increased over the last year, according to the new report from ADP, released on Wednesday. Annual pay rates increased by 7.8%. According to ADP/Standford statistics, the median annual pay is $56,000.
Wages are increasing as people are coming back to work, Richardson noted.
“There are signs that people are returning to the labor market,” she said. “We’re in an interim period where we’re going to continue to see steady job gains. Employer demand remains robust and the supply of workers is improving–for now.”
ADP/Standford analyzes the rate based on payroll data from 25 million people.
Job Stayers Vs. Job Seekers Dynamic Changes
For “job stayers,” the payrate increased to 7.8% from 7.7% in August. However, for “job changers” the payrate decreased from 16.2 in August to 15.7 in September.
The “job changers” decrease is significant, Richardson said. Job changers had seen increases in pay since summer 2021.
“It’s the biggest deceleration in the 3-year history of ADP data,” Richardson said, referring to the wage decrease for job changers.
Break Down of Small Business Wage Increase
For small businesses of 1-19 employees, wages increased by 5.6%. For small businesses from 20-49 employees, wages increased by 7.4%.
Overall, including businesses of all sizes, the largest wage increases were in leisure and hospitality, at about 12%.
Break Down of Wage Increase by Gender
Women led the way in wage increases over four age categories: 16-24, 25-34 (even with men), 35-54 and 55-85.
Overall Job Growth by Category
Service providing jobs increased by 237,000. But goods producing jobs decreased by 29,000.
The biggest gains in service providing jobs were in trade, transportation and utilities. The largest gains in service providing jobs were in the South (89,000) and West (55,000).
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