US private payrolls drop 32,000 in September, biggest decline since March 2023

By Mucahithan Avcioglu

ISTANBUL (AA) —The private nonfarm payrolls in the US posted a decline of 32,000 in September, their largest drop in two and a half years, according to data from the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Research Institute released on Wednesday.

The decline followed a downwardly revised 3,000 drop in August and missed forecasts of a 52,000 gain for September.

"Despite the strong economic growth we saw in the second quarter, this month's release further validates what we've been seeing in the labor market, that US employers have been cautious with hiring," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

In the goods category, the construction sector saw the largest job losses with 5,000, followed by manufacturing with 2,000, while natural resources and mining added 4,000 jobs in September.

In the services category, leisure and hospitality saw the biggest job losses with 19,000, followed by other services with 16,000 losses.

They were followed by professional and business services with a loss of 13,000, and financial activities with 9,000. On the other hand, education and health services posted the highest gain by adding 33,000 jobs, followed by information with 3,000.

With the more recent data on the labor market, concerns have risen over the state of the job market, even though the unemployment rate is at a relatively low rate of 4.3%.

The data comes as the US government is going through a shutdown after Congress failed to agree on a temporary budget. Due to the shutdown, some key economic data will not be released in the coming days by the government agencies.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ emergency plan stated that economic data will not be published during a government shutdown, which means non-farm payrolls, initial jobless claims, and inflation figures may be delayed.