In March, private sector employment in the United States saw an increase of 155,000 jobs, while annual pay rose by 4.6% year-over-year. This data comes from the latest National Employment Report, providing an independent view of the labor market through anonymized payroll information from over 25 million U.S. employees.
“Despite economic uncertainties, the March employment figures are a positive sign for the economy and employers across various sizes,” said a leading economist.
Job Growth Breakdown
The majority of job growth in March was attributed to the service-providing sector, which added 132,000 jobs, while the goods-producing sector contributed 24,000 jobs.
Goods-producing industries included:
- Manufacturing: +21,000
- Construction: +6,000
- Natural resources/mining: -3,000
Service-providing industries added:
- Professional/business services: +57,000
- Financial activities: +38,000
- Leisure/hospitality: +17,000
- Education/health services: +12,000
- Other services: +11,000
- Information: +3,000
- Trade/transportation/utilities: -6,000
Regionally, the Northeast experienced the highest job growth with 89,000 new positions, followed by the Midwest which added 81,000 jobs, predominantly in the East North Central division.
Regional employment changes were as follows:
- Northeast: +89,000
- Midwest: +81,000
- South: +27,000
- West: -41,000
Notably, the West saw employment decline by 12,000 jobs in the Mountain region and by 29,000 in the Pacific region.
Employment by Business Size
Job creation was seen across establishments of all sizes:
- Small establishments (1-49 employees): +52,000
- Medium establishments (50-499 employees): +43,000
- Large establishments (500+ employees): +59,000
Within small businesses, those with 1–19 employees contributed the most with 42,000 jobs added. Medium-sized businesses with 50–249 employees added 34,000 jobs.
Wage Trends
Insights on pay indicate a slowdown in wage growth. Job-stayers saw a 4.6% increase in annual pay, while job-changers experienced a higher increase of 6.5%. This 1.9 percentage point difference for job-changers is the lowest observed since September.
Pay increases for job-stayers by industry were noted as follows:
- Manufacturing: 4.8%
- Financial activities: 5.3%
- Construction, education/health services, leisure/hospitality: 4.7%
- Other services: 4.4%
- Professional/business services: 4.4%
- Trade/transportation/utilities: 4.3%
- Natural resources/mining: 4.3%
- Information: 4.0%
Pay increases for job-stayers also varied by firm size:
- Small firms (1–19 employees): 2.9%
- Small firms (20–49 employees): 4.2%
- Medium firms (50–249 employees): 4.8%
- Medium firms (250–499 employees): 5.0%
- Large firms (500+ employees): 4.9%
The Pay Insights measure provides insights on nearly 14.8 million individual pay change observations monthly as of January 2025, offering real-time insights into the private sector labor market.
