October ADP Jobs and Wage Report Reminds us to Fill Jars and Start Businesses

A person with a savings account
and a business plan to increase earnings.
Investing in his own business.

The latest job report, released on November 5, 2025, showed that the private sector added 42,000 jobs in October, with pay rising 4.5% year over year. This continues a generally positive trend of job growth over the past decade and a half. Employment gains were seen across companies of different sizes—those with 20–49 employees, 250–499, and 500 or more all experienced increases. The strongest growth came from trade, transportation, and utilities, followed by financial services and educational services. I was also pleased to see gains in natural resources, mining, and construction (Invest in the UP/Delta County).

From a broader perspective, rising wages are a positive sign, but inflation continues to erode much of that progress. That’s why many people still feel like their paychecks don’t stretch as far as they once did. Large companies continue to grow, which is good for international business, but I prefer to see more balanced growth across businesses of all sizes. Over consolidation should be thought about. When small businesses expand, they strengthen local economies, often laying the groundwork for midsize and, eventually, larger companies. Small business has a more direct relationship to family wealth. Larger companies are more stock oriented and therefore increase wealth of investors. A balanced growth portfolio across the economy would be ideal for feeding both as they both can provide benefits for economic development. Too much of one or the other creates consolidation problems and inequity of wealth.

It’s also encouraging that trade, transportation, and utilities are up, along with natural resources and construction. These sectors represent the movement of goods and the creation of inputs, suggesting possible future growth. I’d like to see more of this reflected in export numbers. The growth in education and health services is interesting too, though I couldn’t find a clear definition of what’s included in those categories—it might be buried in the report notes somewhere. If you’re into the technical side, there’s an intriguing formula in the report that calculates industry-level changes.

Source ADP Report

As for me, I can’t say I feel any richer yet—but that’s all right. Where I live, life is relatively affordable, and since I do most of my own work, I don’t spend nearly as much as I would in a big city. Lately, I’ve been thinking more about saving money, and I came across this “jar method.” Mine’s an actual glass jar, and I occasionally cash it in to move the money into an investment account. I think if we bought less but bought better, avoided overusing credit cards, fixed up what we already own, and stopped trying to keep up with the neighbors, our jars would fill up faster.

At the same time, wealth concentration continues to rise, so if you really want to grow your own income, starting a business might be one of the few ways left to do it—with all the joys and challenges that come along with that.

Oct. 2025 ADP Report

The Jar Method of Saving-Yahoo Finance