Despite Trump Tariff Uncertainty... US March Private Employment Shows Growth

ADP Private Employment Surpasses Expectations with 155,000 Increase

Amidst the consumer sentiment dampening due to President Donald Trump's tariff policies, a survey found that US private employment increased last month.

US employment information company Automatic Data Processing (ADP) announced on the 2nd that private employment in March increased by 155,000 compared to the previous month. This surpassed both the previous month's job increase (84,000) and the Dow Jones forecast (120,000).

Employment increased across a wide range of sectors. Jobs in professional and business services increased by 57,000, financial sector hiring rose by 38,000, and manufacturing and leisure and hospitality increased by 21,000 and 17,000 respectively.

Despite the increased business uncertainty due to the Trump administration's tariff policies and the civil service reform led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), private employment is interpreted to have maintained a favorable level. Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, evaluated, "Despite policy uncertainty and declining consumer sentiment, the March headline figure showed good results from the perspective of the US economy, and although not all industries, employers of all sizes had good results."

The ADP private company employment indicator is based on information collected by private information companies and differs from the employment indicators officially compiled by the US government. However, the two statistics tend to move in a similar direction. The US Department of Labor is set to release its employment report on the 4th.

Reporter Kim In-yeop inside@hankyung.com