Employment in the US private sector rose by 164,000 jobs in December 2023, an increase from the upwardly revised 103,000 added in November, according to the ADP National Employment Report released today.

December’s figures surpassed Dow Jones’ consensus estimate of 130,000, CNBC reported.

ADP noted that the job growth was primarily driven by a resurgence in the leisure and hospitality sector. However, manufacturing continued to experience losses.

“We’re returning to a labor market that’s very much aligned with prepandemic hiring,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said in a press release.

The report also found that small businesses added 74,000 jobs in December, while midsize and large establishments gained 53,000 and 40,000 jobs, respectively.

Here are the estimates of employment growth by industry:

• Goods-producing, up 9,000
  • Natural resources/mining, down 2,000
  • Construction, up 24,000
  • Manufacturing, down 13,000
• Service-providing, up 155,000
  • Trade/transportation/utilities, up 15,000
  • Information, down 2,000
  • Financial activities, up 18,000
  • Professional/business services, up 1,000
  • Education/health services, up 42,000
  • Leisure/hospitality, up 59,000
  • Other services, up 22,000

Total private-sector employment in the US was nearly 129.4 million in December, according to the report.

ADP report also found that pay growth slowed in December. Median change in annual pay for those saying in their jobs rose 5.4% in December after rising by 5.6% in November. The deceleration continued a trend that began in September 2022, according to ADP. For those changing jobs, median annual pay rose by 8.0% in December 2023, down from 8.2% in November.

The ADP National Employment Report, produced by the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, uses ADP’s anonymized and aggregated payroll data of more than 25 million US employees to provide a representative picture of the labor market. The report details the current month’s total private employment change and weekly job data from the previous month.