On October 30, 2025, the Lab hosted a webinar with Director Erik Brynjolfsson and ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson to discuss the methodology and updated results of the National Employment Report.

The discussion touched on new ways ADP data is giving insight into the economy, including the recent Canaries paper, much of which was only possible thanks to ADP’s data, and featured a moderated Q&A.

The ADP National Employment Report (NER) is an independent and high-frequency view of the private-sector labor market based on the aggregated and anonymized payroll data of more than 26 million U.S. employees.

The monthly report is a free resource for business leaders, researchers, policymakers, and the public. The NER is produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab (DEL). In this webinar, Stanford Professor Erik Brynjolfsson (Director of DEL) and ADP Chief Economist, Nela Richardson will discuss the NER’s methodology, the critical importance of data to understanding changes in the economy, and what’s on the horizon for the report.

Erik Brynjolfsson’s research examines the effects of information technologies on business strategy, productivity and performance, digital commerce, and intangible assets. A best-selling author, he writes and speaks to global audiences about these topics.

Erik is the director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). He also serves as the Ralph Landau Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), professor by courtesy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Department of Economics, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Dr. Nela Richardson is ADP’s Chief Economist and ESG Officer. Nela is the head of the ADP Research Institute (ADPRI), where she leads economic research and provides reliable and timely analysis for the public, global and local businesses, and policymakers. Her background and expertise cross many industries, including finance, technology, housing and labor.