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AFP
Washington
The United States added just 167,000 private sector jobs in July, nowhere near analysts’ expectations of a 1.6 million rise as the coronavirus crisis continues to disrupt business, payroll services firm ADP said Wednesday.
“The labor market recovery slowed in the month of July,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president of the ADP Research Institute.
“We have seen the slowdown impact businesses across all sizes and sectors.”
The survey was the latest indication of weakness in the US recovery from the coronavirus downturn.
Government employment reports for May and June showed increased hiring, but COVID-19 infections have surged in recent months, forcing some states to roll back their reopening measures.
Meanwhile, Congress has yet to reach an agreement on a new aid package to bolster the world’s largest economy, raising fears of continuing layoffs.
Large companies with 500 or more employees added the most jobs with 129,000, while small businesses with less than 50 added 63,000, ADP said.
However mid-sized firms saw employment decline by 25,000.
Among sectors, goods-producing employers saw nearly flat hiring with 1,000 jobs added. The services industry added 166,000 jobs, with professional and business employers as well as education and health gaining the most.
The ADP survey’s release comes ahead of Friday’s July employment report from the Commerce Department, but Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics said the two reports’ methodology are different enough that the ADP data might not reliably preview what the government has to say.
“A substantial slowdown in private and total payrolls in July will be unwelcome news, indicative of renewed pressure on the labor market from outbreaks and repeated interruptions of activity,” she said in an analysis.
“Risks remain to the downside as long as the virus remains uncontained.”
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06/08/2020
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