US private sector saw slower job growth in Aug

Washington, Sep 1

Private companies in the US added 132,000 jobs in August, indicating a slower growth in a tight labour market, a payroll data company said in a report.

Job growth slowed for a second-straight month in August, following a gain of nearly 270,000 jobs in July, the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) report revealed on Wednesday.

Large firms hired 54,000 workers, and medium-sized businesses added 53,000, Xinhua news agency quoted the ADP as saying.

Small companies (with 1-49 employees) added 25,000 employees, but those with 1-19 employees cut 47,000 jobs, it added.

Meanwhile, year-over-year change in annual pay was 7.6 percent in August, in line with monthly readings since spring 2022, the report showed.

"Our data suggests a shift toward a more conservative pace of hiring, possibly as companies try to decipher the economy's conflicting signals," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

"We could be at an inflection point, from super-charged job gains to something more normal," said Richardson.

Despite the slower job growth, the number of openings in the US rose to 11.2 million by the end of July, as the imbalances between labour market supply and demand remained, the Labor Department said on Tuesday.

The July unemployment report, which was released early this month, showed that the number of unemployed edged down to 5.7 million.

With the increase in job openings, there were nearly two job positions per available worker, signaling widening imbalances.