U.S. companies added 179,000 jobs last month, according to a private survey by payroll processor ADP, a steady gain that suggests hiring remains healthy after a sharp fall-off in the spring.
The Associated Press reports the survey shows many businesses are still hiring even as growth has been sluggish this year. The additional jobs, in turn, could keep Americans spending and support a pickup in growth in the second half of the year.
The report shows services companies such as retailers and shipping firms added 185,000 jobs, while construction companies cut jobs and manufacturers added a meager 4,000 positions.
The ADP survey comes in advance of the government’s official July jobs report, which will be released Friday. The ADP data covers only private businesses and often diverge from the official figures. Economists forecast that the government’s jobs report will show a gain of 175,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to tick down to 4.8% from 4.9% for the month previous.
That would be below June’s surprisingly large gain of 287,000. But it would underscore the notion that hiring has recovered after plunging to just 11,000 new jobs in May and a modest 144,000 in April.
Even so, this year’s sluggish growth has raised concerns about the economy’s broader health. Growth has slowed to an annual pace of just 1% in the first six months of the year, half the already-tepid 2% pace of the seven-year old recovery.
And despite decent job gains in some months, companies have pulled back on hiring this year: Job growth averaged 172,000 a month, according to the government’s figures, in the first half of this year. That’s down from 237,000 a month in the final six months of last year.
