Private employment in the U.S. rose by 90,000 jobs in September, according to ADP, marking a rebound after a three-month slowdown. The biggest gains came in education and healthcare, which added 55,000 jobs, while leisure and hospitality added 22,000.
Manufacturing added 17,000 jobs and construction added 15,000. Those are the industries tied most directly to America’s current infrastructure and data-center buildout, and they remain short on labor.
Ed Brady, president and CEO of the Home Builders Institute, said earlier this week that skilled blue-collar roles with six-figure salaries are going unfilled. 'We’re losing more than we’re bringing into the industry. So this problem is going to be accentuated even before it is improved,' Brady told Fox Business. He said young people, parents, educators and legislators need to understand that 'these are six-figure jobs.'
Brady added that people leaving high school can 'make $30 an hour' and still have 'the opportunity to own their own business.'
The labor squeeze is also showing up in wages. A New York Fed wage inflation report published earlier this year found synchronized declines in wage growth across most industries since October 2022, with notable exceptions in public administration, mining and construction.
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said he is watching construction closely for signs of overheating and broader inflation pressure. He told Fortune in September that data-center expansion is 'very hot' and is 'shoving other parts of the economy down.' He said firms are being forced to scale back plans because 'getting construction workers is too expensive' and because 'you can’t get HVAC.'
Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, said she was 'watchful' but not seeing enough evidence of wage overheating to alarm her about the wider macroeconomy. She said the current strain looks more structural, pointing to demographics and the demand for highly skilled blue-collar labor.
Richardson also said manufacturing faces a second problem beyond hiring: shift work. 'The struggle here is not just finding workers, it’s finding the workers who will work the second or third shift,' she said. She added that some hiring pressure reflects worker preferences and family demands, not just wage levels.
The numbers come first. ADP’s report shows a labor market still adding jobs, but the composition matters: capital-intensive sectors are demanding more skilled labor, and the supply is not keeping up. That means higher pay, tighter margins and slower execution for builders and manufacturers that are trying to meet demand.
The market has already voted on the problem. When construction labor is scarce and six-figure jobs sit empty, the cost lands on productivity, project timelines and ultimately the taxpayer in any public buildout. Capital rewards clear rules and available labor; when both are short, bottlenecks multiply.
