US private hiring slows to 38,000 jobs, ADP says

US private-sector employers added 38,000 jobs in August, the slowest pace since the start of the year, payroll firm ADP said Wednesday.

The figure was down from the previous month and below the 47,000 jobs forecast by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

ADP said manufacturing, professional services and information lost jobs. Education and health care, construction, and leisure and hospitality showed stronger hiring.

The ADP figures are closely watched before official US employment data due Friday, although the two reports can differ.

ADP data showed US private-sector hiring has remained in growth since July last year.

“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,” said Matthew Martin, senior economist at Oxford Economics.

ADP said base pay for all private-sector workers rose 3.2 percent in August, while gross pay was up 4.7 percent from a year earlier.

Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, said hiring patterns were being affected by demographic change, persistent inflation and the effects of artificial intelligence on jobs.