Private businesses in the US added 122K workers to their payrolls in December 2024, the least in four months, compared to 146K in November and below forecasts of 140K. "The labor market downshifted to a more modest pace of growth in the final month of 2024, with a slowdown in both hiring and pay gains. Health care stood out in the second half of the year, creating more jobs than any other sector", said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP.

The service-producing sector added 112K jobs, led by education/health services (57K); leisure/hospitality (22K); financial activities (12K); trade/transportation/utilities (8K); and information (5K). The goods-producing sector added 10K jobs due to construction (27K) while manufacturing shed jobs for a third month (-11K) and the natural resources/mining sector lost 6K jobs. Meanwhile, annual pay growth for job-stayers slowed to 4.6%, the slowest since July 2021. Pay growth for job-changers was 7.1%, a slight decline from November.

Source: Trading Economics