The US labor market just posted its softest weekly hiring number in recent weeks. The ADP NER Pulse, a relatively new weekly employment tracker, came in at 25,500 jobs per week for the four weeks ending May 30, a miss on forecasts and a notable drop from the previous reading of 29,000.
For context, that 29,000 figure was already a step down from the all-time high of 40,750 jobs reported earlier in May.
What the weekly numbers actually tell us
The ADP NER Pulse is not your grandfather’s jobs report. Developed in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, it uses a four-week moving average to smooth out noise and provide a more real-time read on private-sector hiring than the traditional monthly data dumps. It updates three times per month, skipping the week when ADP releases its larger monthly employment report.
The monthly ADP report for May 2026, released on June 3, painted a somewhat rosier picture, showing 122,000 private-sector jobs added for the full month. Eight out of ten supersectors posted gains. Year-over-year pay growth held at 4.4%.
