Private sector employment slows in August in the United States, according to ADP

() — The private sector added 132,000 jobs in August, an indication that the white-hot pace of hiring may be slowing after months of strong job growth.

The August figure is well below economists’ expectations of 225,000 jobs added.

“We could be at a tipping point, from supercharged job gains to something more normal,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, a research institute that investigates the US labor market, said in a statement.

ADP also said annual salary rose 7.6%, the first time its report has tracked pay, which it said will encompass gross earnings, including tips, commissions and bonuses. The number indicates a higher rate of wage inflation than has been previously tracked, an implication that would suggest inflation is being factored into employee compensation.

This is ADP’s first monthly employment report after announcing a pause in May. The payroll processing giant has adopted a new methodology that aims to give economists and policymakers better visibility into labor market movement.

The ADP Research Institute has partnered with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab on the new employment reports, which the company says will use “high-frequency, detailed data” that will provide a “richer and more useful analysis” of the US labor market. including a more granular look at employment by industry, establishment size, and location by census tract. ADP handles payroll transactions for more than 25 million workers.

The ADP report is released two days before the official government job report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and at times the two numbers have diverged significantly. While statisticians have formulas to mitigate the effects of seasonality on industry-specific fluctuations, such as the January retail layoff after the post-holiday shopping season, the distortions created by the pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge.

Economists expect this Friday’s BLS report to show that 300,000 jobs were added to the economy in August, according to Refinitiv.