The ADP Employment Report, which measures private sector payrolls, showed that there were 235,000 jobs created in December. This was much stronger than the 150,000 job gains that were expected. While small and medium-sized businesses each added almost 200,000 jobs respectively, large companies with 500 or more employees shed 151,000 jobs.

ADP also reported that annual pay for job stayers increased 7.3% year over year, which is a decline from 7.6% in the previous report. Job changers saw an average increase of 15.2%.

What’s the bottom line? Nela Richardson, chief economist for ADP, said, “The labor market is strong but fragmented, with hiring varying sharply by industry and establishment size. Business segments that hired aggressively in the first half of 2022 have slowed hiring and in some cases cut jobs in the last month of the year.”