Companies added less than 100,000 jobs in June, fewer than expected, new ADP data showed.
Concretely, private sector employment grew by 98,000 posts after a seasonal adjustment. The Dow Jones consensus stood at 110,000.
Almost half of the growth was in the education and health services sector, data showed. Only 2,000 jobs were not in the services industry.
Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, said "the pace of hiring is telling a story of both supply and demand. We know it's taking people longer to find work, but there also are signs of labor supply constraints in certain industries." "For now, the overall effect is a slowdown in job creation."
Most of the hiring was done by small businesses, as those with fewer than 50 employees added 53,000 roles. Companies employing 500 people or more added 25,000 jobs and those in between hired 29,000.
At the same time, recent data released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that US layoffs surged to their highest May level since the pandemic in 2020, with employers announcing more than 97,000 job cuts across the country last month and citing artificial intelligence as a key factor in roughly 40% of those decisions.
Chris Hutchins, founder and chief executive of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, warned that the attribution may not always reflect reality. He told Moneywise that roles involving repetitive, pattern-based tasks are naturally more exposed to automation, but added that when AI is cited beyond those areas, 'the underlying cause is likely something other than AI.'
However, a growing majority of workers around the world are worried about their job security because of the rise of artificial intelligence despite historically low unemployment rates and steady economic growth, according to a recent survey.
ADP's latest Today at Work 2026 report found that only 22% of workers globally strongly agree with the claim that their job is safe from elimination, meaning more than three-quarters of the global workforce harbor concerns about their long-term employment prospects.
The findings are based on responses from more than 39,000 workers across 36 markets worldwide. "Despite three years of historically low global unemployment and steady economic growth, our data reveals widespread job insecurity expressed by workers worldwide," said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.
ADP's findings suggest that workers who regularly use AI on the job actually feel more secure than those who do not. Frequent AI users were more likely to express confidence that their positions would survive future workplace changes.
Job insecurity was especially high among lower-paid workers performing repetitive tasks and among employees at the bottom of management hierarchies. These groups are often considered the most vulnerable to automation and organizational restructuring.
