ADP shows U.S. hiring slowed

ADP said August 5 that U.S. private employers added 44,000 jobs in July, a sharp slowdown from a revised 95,000 in June and below economists’ expectations. The payroll processor’s monthly report, produced with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, also showed annual pay growth of 4.4% for workers who stayed in their jobs. (mediacenter.adp.com) At the same time, a separate Oxylabs analysis of about 850,000 U.S. tech job postings found employers were still heavily seeking cloud and infrastructure skills. Taken together, the two reports point to a labor market in which hiring has softened broadly while demand remains concentrated in specific technical roles. (oxylabs.io) ### Where did July’s hiring weakness show up? (msn.com) ADP said service-providing industries added 47,000 jobs in July, while goods-producing industries lost 3,000. Education and health services accounted for 36,000 of the gains, while some other sectors weakened, leaving overall hiring at its lowest monthly level of 2026 so far, according to reports summarizing the release. CNBC reported that “virtually all” of the month’s gains came from healthcare-related sectors. Forbes described the July pace as “choppy,” echoing language used around the report’s broader picture of uneven hiring. ### What did the pay data say about workers who changed jobs? (mediacenter.adp.com) ADP said annual pay growth for workers who remained in their jobs was 4.4% in July. The report also showed that workers who changed jobs received 7% annual pay gains, the largest year-over-year increase since August 2025, according to CNBC and Fox Business summaries of the data. (upi.com) That split suggested wage growth stayed firmer for job switchers even as hiring slowed. ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in the report that employers were “hesitant to hire and reluctant to replace departing workers,” according to the company release. (cnbc.com) ### Why are cloud and infrastructure skills still standing out? Oxylabs said August 6 that its review of roughly 850,000 U.S. tech job postings published between January 2025 and March 2026 found cloud platforms and foundational infrastructure tools dominated hiring requirements. The company said the dataset showed employers continued to prioritize practical tools such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Git even as layoffs and AI-related restructuring continued across the sector. (mediacenter.adp.com) India New England News, citing the Oxylabs research, said cloud computing and infrastructure expertise remained in especially strong demand. Other reports on the study said AWS appeared in about 30% of postings and Azure in 24%, underscoring how often employers specified cloud-platform experience in openings that were already on the market. (mediacenter.adp.com) ### How do the two reports fit together? The July ADP figures measured overall private-sector hiring in one month. The Oxylabs study measured which skills appeared most often in a large pool of tech job listings over a longer period from January 2025 through March 2026. (oxylabs.io) Those are different slices of the labor market, but both reports pointed to selectivity. ADP’s data showed slower aggregate hiring, while the Oxylabs analysis showed that when tech employers did post jobs, they often asked for cloud and infrastructure capabilities rather than newer or narrower specialties. (indianewengland.com) ### What comes next for the labor-market picture? Friday’s U.S. Labor Department employment report is the next major data release for investors and employers watching whether July’s slowdown extends beyond private payrolls. Preview coverage cited by MSN said Wall Street was waiting for the official nonfarm payrolls count after the ADP miss. (mediacenter.adp.com) The ADP report was released on August 5, and the Oxylabs findings were published on August 6. The next test is the government jobs report on Friday, which will provide unemployment, payroll and wage figures for July. (msn.com) (mediacenter.adp.com)