America's private employers added 86,000 jobs in October, more than economists expected, in the first major reading on the labour market since Tuesday's midterm elections — and the strongest single slice of that hiring came in the sector that moves the country's freight. The ADP National Employment Report, released at 8:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday, November 4, by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, put October's private-sector gain at 86,000, ahead of the market expectation of about 69,000 reported by FXStreet. ADP also revised September's gain down from 90,000 to 86,000, meaning hiring has now run at the same solid pace for two straight months.
Source: ADP National Employment Report via PR Newswire (Nov. 4, 2026)
Where the jobs came from
Service-providing employers did almost all of the hiring, adding 82,000 jobs, while goods-producing employers added 4,000. Trade, transportation and utilities — the category that covers trucking, warehousing, freight and retail distribution — led every sector with 39,000 new jobs. Education and health services added 28,000, leisure and hospitality 19,000 and financial activities 15,000. The weak spot was professional and business services, which shed 27,000 jobs for the third straight month. Inside goods production, construction added 13,000 jobs, while natural resources and mining lost 8,000 and manufacturing lost 1,000, ADP reported.
Pay: job-changers are cashing in
Pay growth held steady, and workers who switched jobs did strikingly well. Median base pay rose 3.2 percent year over year for all workers — 3.0 percent for job-stayers and 4.8 percent for job-changers. Gross pay, which captures bonuses, overtime and extra hours, rose 4.7 percent overall and 7.6 percent for job-changers. “Employers of all sizes were hiring last month, and our data suggests that job-changers were lured by a combination of bonuses, overtime, and more hours in addition to higher base pay,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “Taken together, earnings growth for these workers hit its fastest pace since March 2024.”
Source: ADP National Employment Report via PR Newswire (Nov. 4, 2026)
Every region and every size of employer hired
The South added the most jobs of any region, 47,000 — including 35,000 in the West South Central states — followed by the West with 28,000, of which 27,000 were in the Pacific states. The Midwest added 9,000 and the Northeast 3,000. Hiring was also spread across company sizes: small establishments added 28,000 jobs, mid-sized establishments 33,000 and large establishments with 500 or more employees 24,000. ADP describes its report as an independent measure of the labour market built from the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees in the United States.
Why this report matters this week
The ADP release is the second of three labour-market tests in five days. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' JOLTS survey showed September job openings rising to 7.523 million, with quits climbing to about 3.4 million — a sign workers felt confident enough to leave jobs voluntarily. On Friday, November 6, at 8:30 a.m. ET, the government publishes the official October Employment Situation report; a Reuters survey of economists expects payrolls to have advanced by about 65,000 in October, with the unemployment rate forecast unchanged at 4.2 percent, after September's weak gain of just 29,000. The Federal Reserve, which held its policy rate at 3.75 to 4 percent on October 28 with inflation still described as elevated, weighs exactly this balance — steady hiring against sticky prices — ahead of its December meeting.
The single biggest hiring engine in October was trade, transportation and utilities (+39,000) — the world of freight, warehouses and delivery networks where a large share of Punjabi-American truckers, dispatchers and warehouse workers earn their living. Construction (+13,000) also hired. The caution flag is pay: base pay for stayers rose 3.0 percent, so a driver or warehouse worker who stayed put saw a modest raise, while changers who moved employers captured 4.8 percent base and 7.6 percent gross gains — movement, not loyalty, is what the October data rewarded.
Read the numbers with care
ADP itself stresses that its report is an independent measure, not a forecast of Friday's official figures: the two use different samples and methods, and ADP's numbers are revised as more payroll data arrives — September's total was itself revised from 90,000 to 86,000 in this release. The October report therefore says the private labour market was steadier than feared going into the election, but the verdict traders and the Fed will weight most heavily lands on Friday morning.
What happens next
The Institute for Supply Management's services survey follows later on Wednesday, November 4, weekly jobless claims arrive Thursday, November 5, and the October Employment Situation report — nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate — is published Friday, November 6, at 8:30 a.m. ET. ADP's next National Employment Report, covering November, is scheduled for December 2, 2026, at 8:15 a.m. ET.