Employment in the US private sector rose by 296,000 jobs in April, according to the ADP National Employment Report released today. In addition, the report found growth in annual pay continued to slow.

Among the findings: pay growth for those staying in their jobs rose 6.7% in April and pay for those changing jobs was up 13.2%. The growth in pay for those changing jobs was the lowest since November 2021; it had grown by 14.2% in March.

“The slowdown in pay growth gives the clearest signal of what’s going on in the labor market right now,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “Employers are hiring aggressively while holding pay gains in check as workers come off the sidelines. Our data also shows fewer people are switching jobs.”

Small businesses with not more than 49 employees added 121,000 jobs in April, while midsize businesses with not more than 499 employees added 122,000 jobs. Large businesses with 500 or more employees added 47,000 jobs.

Here are the jobs added in April by sector:

• Goods-producing, up 67,000
  • Natural resources/mining, up 52,000
  • Construction, up 53,000
  • Manufacturing, down 38,000
• Service-providing, up 229,000
  • Trade/transportation/utilities, up 32,000
  • Information, up 2,000
  • Financial activities, down 28,000
  • Professional/business services, down 16,000
  • Education/health services, up 69,000
  • Leisure/hospitality, up 154,000
  • Other services, up 16,000

Total jobs added in March was revised downward to 142,000 from 145,000.

The ADP National Employment Report, produced by 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.