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ADP jobs report April 2025:

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Private payroll growth slowed to 62,000 in April, well below expectations

Companies slowed hiring sharply in April as they braced against potential impacts from President Donald Trump’s tariffs against U.S. trading partners, ADP reported Wednesday.

Private sector payrolls rose by just 62,000 for the month, the smallest gain since July 2024, amid heightened uncertainty over the degree of the tariffs and the impact they would have on hiring plans and broader economic conditions.

The total marked a deceleration from the downwardly revised gain of 147,000 in March and missed the Dow Jones consensus estimate for an increase of 120,000.

“Unease is the word of the day. Employers are trying to reconcile policy and consumer uncertainty with a run of mostly positive economic data,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. “It can be difficult to make hiring decisions in such an environment.”

Wage gains also took a step backwards, rising 4.5% from a year ago for those staying in their jobs, down 0.1 percentage point from March. However, job changers saw an increase to 6.9%, up 0.2 percentage point.

From a sector standpoint, leisure and hospitality posted the biggest gain, adding 27,000 jobs. Others that showed increases included trade, transportation and utilities (21,000), financial activities (20,000) and construction (16,000). Education and health services lost 23,000 positions while information services fell by 8,000.

The ADP estimate serves as a precursor to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the two reports can differ substantially. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones are looking for job growth of 133,000 in the BLS report, which unlike ADP includes government hiring. The unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 4.2%.

Economics

Joe Biden did not decline alone

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Accept, for a moment, Joe Biden’s contention that he is as mentally as sharp as ever. Then try to explain some revelations of the books beginning to appear about his presidency: that he never held a formal meeting to discuss whether to run for a second term; that he never heard directly from his own pollsters about his dismal public standing, or anything else; that by 2024 most of his own cabinet secretaries had no contact with him; that, when he was in Washington, he would often eat dinner at 4.30pm and vanish into his private quarters by 5.15; that when he travelled, he often skipped briefings while keeping a morning appointment with a makeup artist to cover his wrinkles and liver spots. You might think that Mr Biden—that anyone—would welcome as a rationale that he had lost a step or two. It is a kinder explanation than the alternatives: vanity, hubris, incompetence.

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Economics

Three paths the Supreme Court could take on birthright citizenship 

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AMERICA’S SUPREME COURT appears unusually uncertain about how to resolve Trump v CASA—a case that could redefine who qualifies as an American citizen and reshape the limits of judicial power. At issue is the 14th Amendment’s promise of citizenship for “all persons born or naturalised” in America. For more than 125 years this has been understood to grant automatic citizenship to almost everyone born on American soil (the children of diplomats and soldiers of invading armies are exceptions). Donald Trump has issued an executive order that claims the clause was never intended to apply to children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visa-holders.

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Economics

The MAGA revolution threatens America’s most innovative place

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Cuts to funding risk hobbling Boston’s science establishment

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