- Private companies added 38,000 jobs in August, down from 46,000 and below the estimate for 47,000, for the slowest month since January, according to ADP.
- Three categories accounted for most of the job growth: education and health services, leisure and hospitality and construction. Manufacturing saw a loss of 17,000 jobs.
- The report comes ahead of the BLS nonfarm payrolls count, due out Friday.
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Private U.S. companies added jobs at a slightly slower-than-expected pace in August, with gains concentrated heavily in health care and a few other industries, ADP reported Wednesday
The payrolls processing firm said firms added 38,000 workers, fewer than the upwardly revised 46,000 in July and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 47,000
Though job creation held positive, August was the smallest gain since January and reflective of a broader slowdown in the labor market. Moreover, most of the jobs came from three sectors, with multiple others showing declines
Education and health services added 45,000 to lead all categories, with the latter group being at the forefront of employment growth
Leisure and hospitality added 16,000 positions an construction was up 12,000. Outside of that, though, there were few growth areas
Manufacturing lost 17,000 jobs, professional and business services was off 16,000 and both the natural rereported declines of 5,000
Almost all of the gains came from big business, with companies employing 500 or more workers adding 34,000 while those with fewer than 50 employees rose by 3,000
ADP’s numbers also showed that pay gains held steady for the month. The firm added a feature in August in which it broke down growth between base and gross pay, the latter including tips, commissions, bonuses and other earnings
For those staying in their jobs, base pay rose 3% from a year ago while gross pay increased 4.4%, both unchanged from July. For all workers, the respective increases were 3.2% and 4.7%
The ADP report serves as a precursor to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ nonfarm payrolls release, due out Friday, which is expected to show an increase of 53,000, after the 23,000 decline in July. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold at 4.1%
