US Labor Market Stumbles: ADP Reports First Private Sector Job Loss Since Pandemic Recovery

Released today, the ADP National Employment Report for June 2025 shows a significant slowdown in the US private sector labor market, with a loss of 33,000 jobs. This negative statistic follows a significant downward correction of May's job gains—from an initial 37,000 to only 29,000—which represents the worst monthly performance in more than two years. This change represents the first net job losses in the private sector since the first stage of the recovery from the epidemic.

Drawing its conclusions from anonymized payroll data encompassing more than 25 million American workers, the study offers a vital, high-frequency measure of the state of the private-sector labor market. Though the hiring rate has clearly slowed down, annual salary growth has been rather robust, recording a 4. 4% year-over-year gain.

The implications of this report are great: the sharp hiring slowdown implies that companies are cautious in light of growing policy difficulties and financial uncertainty. The Federal Reserve is probably going to face more pressure to think about interest rate decreases since politicians as well as financial markets get more and more worried about the possibility of a wider economic slowdown in the labor market.