Private sector employment grew at its slowest pace in seven months in August, ADP (ADP) data showed Wednesday, ahead of the official jobs report due later in the week.
Private jobs advanced by 38,000 last month, representing the smallest gain since January, payrolls processing firm ADP said. The consensus was for a 47,000 increase in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.
The number of jobs added in July was revised up to 46,000 from 44,000, according to the ADP report.
"The acceleration in payroll gains in the first half of the year looks to have cooled, settling into a more tepid pattern associated with the no hire, no fire labor market," Oxford Economics Senior Economist Matthew Martin said in remarks emailed to.
The services sector added 48,000 jobs last month, led by a 45,000 jump in education and health services, ADP said. The goods-producing sector saw employment drop by 10,000 jobs.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are likely to show Friday that the US economy added 55,000 nonfarm jobs last month, compared with a loss of 23,000 for July, according to a Bloomberg-compiled survey. The unemployment rate is seen unchanged at 4.1%.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh described the labor market as "quite stable" on Friday, citing a 4.1% unemployment rate that he said remains low by historical standards.
Gross pay growth was unchanged in August at 4.4% for job stayers and slowed sequentially to 7.3% from 7.5% for job changers, ADP said. Gross pay measures total compensation generated by labor market activity, a data set that can be used to assess income growth and consumer spending power, according to ADP.
"Pay can tell us a lot about today's choppy hiring," ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said. "To understand hiring patterns, you have to look deeply into where pay growth is accelerating, where it's slowing, and for whom."
On Tuesday, the BLS reported that job openings increased in July, while hiring fell.
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