U.S. private-sector employers added 179,000 jobs to their payrolls in May, according to the ADP National Employment Report issued Wednesday morning.
That missed economists’ average forecast for about 200,000 jobs and was also down from the 215,000 jobs that ADP says were added in April.
“After a strong post-winter rebound in April, job growth in May slowed somewhat,” Carlos Rodriguez, president and CEO of ADP, a global payroll-processing firm, said in a news release. “The 179,000 jobs added figure is higher than May of last year and in line with the average over the past 12 months.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Job growth moderated in May. The slowing in growth was concentrated in Professional/Business Services and companies with 50-999 employees. The job market has yet to break out from the pace of growth that has prevailed over the last three years.”
Small businesses (1-49 employees) added 82,000 jobs in May, medium businesses (50-499 workers) boosted payrolls by 61,000, while large businesses (500 or more employees) added 37,000 jobs, according to the ADP report.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release its May jobs report this Friday morning. That report includes private sector and government jobs. Economists are expecting the BLS to report a gain of about 220,000 jobs in May, according to Yahoo Finance data.
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