Private employers added 145,000 jobs and annual pay jumped 6.9 percent in March, according to a monthly report from payroll processing firm ADP. That is down from 261,000 in February and below estimates of 210,000.
“Our March payroll data is one of several signals that the economy is slowing,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Employers are pulling back from a year of strong hiring and pay growth, after a three-month plateau, is inching down.”
The report comes one day after a federal report showed job openings falling below 10 million for the first time in two years, when a historically tight labor market left employers struggling to fill positions.
Some of the biggest job gains were in resources and mining, which added 47,000 jobs, and trade, transportation, and utilities, which added 56,000 jobs. Professional and business services, meanwhile, shed 46,000 jobs, and financial services lost 51,000.
Annual pay growth for job stayers also fell from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent, which remains historically high, while pay growth for job changers fell from 14.4 percent to 14.2 percent.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
