By Joshua Kirby


The U.S. private sector continued to lose pace in job creation last month as pay rises also eased, according to a monthly report, pointing to further cooling in the wider economy.

Employment in the nonfarm private sector rose by 152,000 jobs in May, compared with 188,000 in April, according to the ADP National Employment Report published Wednesday. This was below expectations, according to a Wall Street Journal survey of economists, and marks a second straight month of slowdown in new jobs, reversing the acceleration booked in the year's first months.

"Job gains and pay growth are slowing going into the second half of the year," ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said.

Annual wage growth similarly declined for a second month in a row, the report showed, falling to 7.8% for job-changers from 8% in April.

The ADP estimate is based on aggregated payroll data of more than 25 million U.S. workers and is independent from Labor Department official data. Pay data is based on the salaries of almost 10 million individual employees over a 12-month period.

The manufacturing sector led the slowdown in overall job creation, losing 20,000 posts from a month earlier. Employment in natural-resources and mining also contracted. The services sector added close to 150,000 positions, though some areas lost jobs, including professional and business services and information services.

The Pacific region lost the most jobs, while the South added some 101,000, especially in West South Central, the survey showed. The Northeast and Midwest also contributed to job growth over the month.

"The labor market is solid, but we're monitoring notable pockets of weakness tied to both producers and consumers," ADP's Richardson said.

Official Labor Department employment data for May will be published Friday, with economists expecting a stable jobless rate and a slight uptick in job growth.


Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-05-24 0854ET