The US economy added 42,000 jobs in October, per ADP report

We have to imagine this is how it feels to come across a lighthouse in a storm.

Absent federal jobs data, alternative surveys and reports have acquired increased significance to give us all a sense of the state of hiring, which is why Wednesday’s employment report from payroll processing company ADP feels particularly fresh.

Private companies added 42,000 jobs in October, per the report, a welcome reprieve from recent job losses. While it marked the first time since July that private employers added jobs, ADP chief economist Nela Richardson noted in the release that “hiring was modest relative to what we reported earlier this year.”

On a call with reporters on Wednesday, she added that the recovery seen in October “is tepid, and it is not broad-based,” per CNN.

The most significant job gains came from trade, transportation, and utilities firms, followed by education and health services companies.

Leisure and hospitality companies shed 6,000 jobs in the month, which Richardson pointed to as “the most concerning trend,” since “that points swiftly back to the consumer and how healthy and resilient the consumer will be. In the last three months of the year, we’ve seen consumer resiliency push up employment in that sector, so this negative number is something to watch as we go into the holiday season.”

Continuing a trend seen last month, large firms, defined as those with over 500 employees, added jobs (73,000) while small and medium firms lost employees (10,000 and 21,000, respectively).

That’s also troubling, in Richardson’s eyes, given the outsized amount of workers at small businesses. “Three in four workers in the United States, approximately, work in a smaller firm with headcount under 250 so seeing weakness and softness there is a concern when you think of the U.S. labor force population in its entirety,” she told reporters, per NBC News.