Financial sector jobs grew in April, but a record wage gap challenges the industry's recovery.
There might be a light at the end of the tunnel for job safety in commercial banking — or it could be the light of an oncoming train.
After more than 12 months of continuous job losses, commercial banks may be turning the corner. The ADP National Employment report for April 2026 noted that the financial activities sector grew by 9,000 positions, 5,000 more than the previous month.
The sector added the fourth-most jobs, behind education and health services (61,000); trade, transportation, and utilities (25,000); and construction (10,000). Only professional and business services saw a decline, with 8,000 jobs lost in April.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is both more bullish and bearish compared to the ADP findings. The BLS calculated that the economy added 115,000 non-farm payroll jobs in April, while ADP saw private sector employment increase by 109,000 jobs, based on the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees.
On the other hand, BLS noted that employment in financial activities “showed little change over the month.”
AI Warning
The slight upswing seen by ADP could be a reversal of monthly job losses in commercial banking from February 2025, according to research by KBRA Financial Intelligence (KFI). But there’s a catch.
“Recent declines have been markedly narrower than those recorded in 2023 and 2024, suggesting that a consolidation of the commercial banking workforce could be slowing, but the ongoing implementation of AI within the industry could continue to shrink headcount at some banks,” according to a KFI Insight report.
Growth Spurt
So, where’s the greatest job growth? At the smallest and largest organizations.
The micro/small (1-19 employees) and large enterprises (more than 500 employees) led in job growth, with 43,000 and 42,000 positions, respectively. Only companies at the upper end of the mid-sized enterprise range (250-499 employees) cut, jettisoning 3,000 jobs in April.
“Small and large employers are hiring, but we’re seeing softness in the middle,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “Large companies have resources to deploy, and small ones are the most nimble, both important advantages in a complex labor environment.”
Wage Worries
It’s not all good news. According to Bank of America Institute, which bases its numbers on aggregated and anonymized bank transaction data, unemployment payments continued to slow, but a large K-shape in wage growth continued into April.
“In April, higher-income households saw their after-tax wage growth rise to 6.0% year-on-year (YoY) — the highest rate we’ve observed since August 2021,” wrote the authors of the April 2026 Employment Report from the Institute.
“In fact, even within this cohort, there is a divergence, with after-tax wage growth for the highest 5% of households by income stronger than that of the rest of the higher-income cohort,” the authors noted.
“Middle- and lower-income households also saw increases in their after-tax wage growth in April, to 2.3% YoY and 1.5% YoY, respectively,” the researchers found. “But the gap between these cohorts and higher-income households remains at its widest level since our data series began in 2015.”
