ADP’s February Jobs Report Looks Good Until You See Where the Jobs Actually Are
Pull the report apart, and the optimism gets complicated fast. Nearly all of February’s growth came from just two sectors: education and health services added 58,000 jobs, and construction added 19,000. Healthcare demand isn’t letting up anytime soon, and construction is getting a clear boost from data center buildout. Both trends should continue. If you work in either of those fields, the market is working in your favor.
The rest of the picture is considerably harder to spin. Professional and business services, the white-collar office work category, lost 30,000 jobs in February, a second consecutive monthly decline. Manufacturing shed another 5,000, extending a losing streak running for more than a year. Mid-sized companies cut 7,000 jobs overall. Large companies added just 10,000. The only size segment with genuinely strong numbers was the smallest businesses, firms with fewer than 20 employees, which accounted for 58,000 jobs on their own. Regionally, the South drove most of the gains at 37,000 jobs, while the Midwest actually lost 4,000.
Putting Your MBA After Your Name on LinkedIn May Actually Be Hurting You
Here’s something you probably haven’t seen written about before. A new study from Revelio Labs analyzed professional profiles to find out what listing your degree directly in your name, think “Jane Smith, MBA” or “John Doe, PhD,” actually signals to recruiters. The results are counterintuitive enough to make you reconsider your LinkedIn display name.
Only 3.5% of graduate degree holders list their credentials in their name at all. MDs are most likely to do it at 14%, PhDs at 10%, and everyone else falls well below that. But here’s the finding that cuts deepest: for nearly every degree type, people who list their credentials score lower on prestige metrics than those who don’t. The salary gap is even more striking. MBA holders who list their degree in their name earn 16.7% less on average than those who don’t. Even after controlling for school attended, MBA, JD, and MA graduates who display their credentials earn 6 to 7% less than peers from the same programs who don’t.
Revelio’s theory is that people from highly-ranked programs or prestigious employers let those institutions speak for themselves in the body of their profiles. Those from less-recognized programs may be more inclined to emphasize the degree in their display name. The data doesn’t prove that listing your degree is causing the pay gap. It’s more likely a signal about who tends to do it. But if you’re actively job searching, it’s worth knowing what recruiters are actually seeing when they look at your name. Your degree belongs in the education section. What sits next to your name should reflect your current role and professional identity.
Most Companies Are Investing in AI Without a Plan for What Happens Next
A new Gartner survey of managers and HR leaders surfaces something that anyone who’s tried to roll out AI tools at scale will recognize immediately: the gap between deploying AI and actually getting value from it is wide, and most organizations are stuck in the middle of it.
Only 45% of managers say AI has improved their team’s work as much as they expected, meaning the majority are underwhelmed. 46% of managers are actively experimenting with AI, compared to just 26% of employees. That inversion matters: the people closest to the day-to-day work are the least engaged with the tools designed to change it. 86% of managers report real challenges driving effective AI use across their teams, with only 14% saying they’ve experienced no friction at all.
The most actionable finding is also the most embarrassing one: only 7% of organizations have given employees any guidance on what to do with the time AI saves them. Companies are investing in technology designed to free up hours and then leaving employees to figure out on their own what those hours are for. Gartner’s Cameron von Rohr noted that HR has largely focused on helping employees explore and experiment with AI while overlooking managers as the critical lever for driving actual adoption. There’s also a leadership disconnect: 55% of HR leaders want freed-up time directed toward special projects, but only 28% of managers would prioritize the same thing. Everyone’s implementing AI, but almost no one has a coherent plan for what comes after. If you’re working through what the future of recruiting looks like in an AI-enabled organization, that question is worth answering before you’re forced to.
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Frequently Asked Questions
ADP reported that private employers added 63,000 jobs in February, the strongest reading since July 2025. However, nearly all of that growth was concentrated in education and health services (58,000 jobs) and construction (19,000 jobs). Professional and business services lost 30,000 jobs, a second straight monthly decline, and manufacturing shed another 5,000. ADP also revised January’s job numbers down from 22,000 to 11,000.
When the pay premium for changing employers hits a record low, it means workers gain less financially from switching jobs than at any point in recent history. That shifts leverage firmly to employers. Companies know candidates have fewer attractive alternatives, which reduces pressure to compete on compensation. For workers, it means staying put and negotiating from your current position is often the smarter move right now.
According to Revelio Labs, people who attended highly-ranked schools or worked for prestigious employers tend to let those institutions speak for themselves in the body of their profiles. Those from less-recognized programs are more likely to emphasize the degree in their display name. The result is that credential-listing tends to correlate with lower prestige scores and lower salaries, not because the practice itself causes the gap, but because of who tends to do it.
Gartner’s research suggests the gap comes down to direction and incentive. Managers are closer to strategic goals and productivity expectations, giving them clearer motivation to experiment. Employees often lack guidance on how AI fits into their specific roles or what they’re supposed to do with the time saved. Only 7% of organizations have provided any guidelines on that question, which means most companies are leaving adoption largely to chance.
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ADP: February jobs growth is real but narrow
Welcome back to Cornering the Job Market. Today’s big headline is a February employment report that came out from ADP this morning. The numbers look good on the surface, but not so much when you dig into them, which I’ve done and I’ll share with you in just a minute. Also, there’s new data that shows what listing your degree after your name on LinkedIn is actually signaling to recruiters. It’s not something I’ve seen written about before. It’s really interesting. I look forward to sharing that in a second. But also, uh, there is a Gartner survey that asked whether AI is living up to the hype in the workplace.
Of course there is, because that has to be something we talk about almost every day. But we are going to focus on what is most important, which are jobs, of course. And the February jobs report from ADP shows that the numbers are the best we’ve seen in seven months. ADP reports private employers added 63,000 jobs in February. That’s the best since July. And that sounds great. It sounds like progress. But what the numbers hide is that nearly all of that, or at least what the headline number hides, is that nearly all of that growth came from just two sectors education and health services, and those are combined, but that’s effectively health care. That sector added 58,000 jobs, and construction added 19,000. So we know that construction is booming because of data centers.
We know that supply and demand is very much in favor of healthcare workers right now, and I see both of those continuing for the foreseeable future. So that’s good. If you’re in that space or going into that space, you’re in great shape. And I think that will continue. But office jobs are getting just decimated right now, and there doesn’t seem to be any happy news in the near future coming there. Professional and business services lost 30,000 jobs, which is the second consecutive month of losses in that sector. And manufacturing lost 5,000. And that’s just been on a bad trend. Almost every month for the last year and a half, we’ve seen losses in manufacturing. So not good there. That’s a pattern. Is it tariffs? Is it the economy as a whole? Is it uncertainty? Now we have war. And I would like to say it’s not AI, but of course that is a huge factor, too.
So I’m not sure what catalysts could occur to turn the things around there, other than just overall business booming, but I just don’t see it in the near future. So that’s what’s going on there. Also, small businesses, so those are firms with fewer than 20 employees. So the smallest of the small businesses accounted for 58,000 jobs. So it’s good to see SMBs doing well, at least or at least small businesses in particular. Nellyn Richardson, who is the chief economist at ADP, said hiring is concentrated in only a few sectors, and the pay premium for switching employers hit a record low in February. So not just a bad number, but a record bad number. And that means if you’re planning to switch jobs, it is just not an attractive thing to do right now. Employers hold all the cards, employers know it. It’s been that way for a year. The happy, go lucky job switching times that were all in the employees’ favor back in 2022 is such a distant memory at this point.
So that is what’s happening there. Employers hold the cards, only a couple sectors are doing well. Small businesses are thriving, large ones are not. And well, I’ll just hope we see better numbers soon. We’re gonna see the uh the government’s numbers are coming out at the end of the week. Maybe that’ll tell a different story, but ADP is what I rely on more than anything these days. I trust it the most. I think a lot of people do. So that is where we are right now, just doing well in a couple areas.
Revelio Labs: What listing your degree really signals to recruiters
Now, in the next story, here’s something that affects anyone who has ever put MBA or PhD after their name on LinkedIn. A lot of people have a strong opinion on that. I won’t share mine. Revelio Labs is what matters here more than my opinion. They published a study this week analyzing professional profiles. Here’s what they show. Only 3.5% of graduate degree holders actually list their degree in their name or their professional profiles. That number is low. I thought it was going to be a lot higher. MDs are most likely to display their credentials, as they should. 14% do it. That seems really low to me.
I thought all MDs would share that. PhDs are next at 10%. Also surprising me. I thought PhDs were inclined to do it more often than not. Um, and everyone else is well below that. So it again, my my first surprising thing from this is that it doesn’t happen with nearly the frequency I believe that it did, with no science to back that up whatsoever. Here’s the counterintuitive part. For nearly every degree type, people who list their credentials score lower on prestige metrics than those who don’t. Who would have thought that? I uh that seems crazy to me. That it’s a factor in anything. Also, the salary gap is even more striking. MBA holders who list their degree earn 16.7% less on average than those who don’t. What in the world? That is a that’s not a rounding error. That’s a big difference. That is just wild to me to see. So your degree goes in the education section. I think that’s their takeaway, their recommendation from this.
Um, what sits next to your name should reflect your professional identity, your current role, what you do, who you help, what you’re looking to accomplish, what someone should think of you for. That’s what recruiters are looking at, that’s what the revelio reports. If you’ve earned a degree, by all means, use it. But just know that at least this data from Ravelio Labs indicates that maybe it’s working against you. So that’s why I’m sharing it. So interesting report, I’ll link it.
Gartner: AI adoption is stalling at the employee level
Also, I’m constantly talking about AI coming for jobs, but today’s Gartner data looks at something different. It looks at whether AI is actually delivering for the companies that are already using it. How’s it working? 45% of managers say AI has improved their team’s work as much as they expected. Okay, that means 55 didn’t. They always have these weird headlines with the lower number. I don’t think that should ever be the headline. I think the majority should always be what you talk about. So that doesn’t, I mean, they they almost promote us if it’s a good thing. I think it’s not a good thing because if more than half the managers say AI hasn’t been able to deliver what they hoped for, I mean, that’s sounds like it should be the real story.
Also, 46% of managers are actively experimenting with AI to improve their work compared to only 26% of their employees. That’s that is a consistent thing that I see a lot from our own study, from other surveys, that the higher up people are, the more they’re using it. That should be something that people who are at a staff level, entry level should pay attention to. You’ve got to catch up, you’ve got to get in the game. That is backwards from how it should be. Also, 86% of managers say they face real challenges driving effective AI use across their teams. Only 14% no friction at all. Yeah, I see that. I mean, it’s it’s it’s a hard it’s hard to convince people to use AI when they don’t want to. And we are all making this up as we go. There’s no roadmap for this, there’s no history of success to rely on.
So this is a story that’s being written in real time that everyone is participating in, whether they want to or not. Gardner’s Cameron Von Rohr put it directly by saying HR has largely focused on empowering employees to explore, learn, and innovate with AI, and have overlooked the role of the manager in driving effective use of AI tools. I mean, that is a full-time job depending on the company. Um, you need to have a policy in place. A lot of companies don’t. Only 7% have given employees any guidelines on what to do with the time saved by AI. You’re investing in this technologies, you’re changing the way you work, it’s designed to free up time and be more efficient and more productive. Well, you need to have an answer for what’s on the other side of it.
And it appears that most companies, a vast majority of companies, do not. Also, from this report, before we move on, there’s a disconnect at the top. 55% of HR leaders want that freed up time going towards special projects, and only 28% of managers would prioritize the same thing. So it’s just everyone’s trying to figure it out, and there’s a lot of differing opinions on it. That is something I know as someone who talks about AI constantly. Everyone has an opinion on it. There’s so much variety there. And again, we’re all gonna figure out ultimately where all of this lands as we go. So I’ll link all those reports. That is it for today. The big number is jobs. We have more than we did a month ago, but only in a couple areas. So we’ll see what happens with the government report later this week.
Fun fact: There’s a corporate role called Chief Listening Officer
But here’s a fun fact before we go. This is about weird jobs that actually exist. A chief listening officer is a thing, a corporate role. It’s a corporate role dedicated to monitoring social media and customer feedback. Okay, how much do you get paid for that? I mean, can you just have your AI do that now? Maybe? I don’t know. I don’t see that job being around for too much longer with AI. But if you have it, good for you. I hope you keep it as long as you can. Sounds fun. So that’s it for today. Thank you for listening. Please like, subscribe, share with anyone you think might be interested, and I will talk to you tomorrow.
