Glossary
ADP National Employment Report
A monthly estimate of US private-sector employment from ADP Research and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, based on anonymized payroll data.
The ADP National Employment Report estimates the monthly change in US private-sector employment. It is produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, from the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees. The monthly report is released at 8:15 New York time, usually on the Wednesday before the BLS jobs report. Since 28 October 2025, ADP has also published a weekly preliminary estimate on Tuesdays.
Example
On Wednesday, 30 September 2026, ADP reported that private-sector employment rose by 90,000 in September. Two days later the BLS report showed total non-farm payrolls up 29,000. ADP counts private employers only and uses different data, so the two figures are not directly comparable.
Why it matters
ADP is the first large monthly reading on US jobs, two days before NFP, and it is not a forecast of NFP. In our lab, the early-direction effect on gold after ADP and eight other US releases was positive until 2018 and negative in every year from 2020.