ADP July 2026 jobs report shows private hiring slowed to 44,000

The ADP July 2026 jobs report showed U.S. private employers added 44,000 positions, a slower pace than economists expected and a sharp step down from June. For investors, the report points to uneven hiring: education and health services supplied most of the net gain, while several consumer-facing and goods-related industries cut jobs.

ADP’s seasonally adjusted estimate came in below the 75,000-job consensus forecast tracked by Dow Jones, according to CNBC. June’s gain was revised down to 95,000 from an initially reported 98,000.

ADP’s report is not the government’s official employment count. It draws on aggregated, anonymized payroll records from more than 26 million U.S. employees and is produced with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled to release its nonfarm-payroll report two days later.

What did the ADP July 2026 jobs report show?

Services industries added 47,000 jobs in July, more than accounting for the overall increase because goods-producing businesses lost 3,000 jobs on net, ADP reported.

Education and health services added 36,000 positions, equal to roughly 82% of the 44,000 overall increase, based on the reported figures. Financial activities added 10,000 jobs and professional and business services added 9,000. Information added 5,000 and other services added 6,000.

Those gains were partly offset by an 11,000-job decline in leisure and hospitality, an 8,000-job drop in trade, transportation and utilities, and a 6,000-job loss in natural resources and mining. Manufacturing added 2,000 jobs, while construction added 1,000.

Which employers added jobs?

The results varied even among smaller businesses. Employers with 1 to 19 workers added 27,000 jobs, while those with 20 to 49 workers shed 4,000. Mid-sized firms added 2,000 jobs in the 50-to-249-worker category and 6,000 among companies with 250 to 499 employees.

Companies with at least 500 workers added 13,000 jobs, ADP said. That distribution shows the July headline did not reflect one uniform hiring pattern across businesses.

What happened to pay growth?

Pay gains for workers who stayed in their jobs held at 4.4% year over year. Workers who changed jobs saw pay rise 7%, the fastest pace since August 2025, according to CNBC’s report on the ADP data.

ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said job changers respond quickly to current economic conditions, and their faster pay growth suggests labor supply constraints in some parts of the market. She also said employers’ usual hiring patterns were shifting as they responded to broader economic conditions.

The figures offer a timely read on private payrolls, but they measure a different dataset from the BLS report and should not be treated as the official national employment total.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.