By Ed Frankl


The U.S. private sector added jobs in April at a slightly slower pace, as pay growth cooled, a monthly report said.

Employment in the nonfarm private sector rose by 192,000 jobs in April, down from a revised 208,000 in March, according to the ADP National Employment Report published Wednesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a lower rise of 183,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, annual wage growth rose at an average 5.0% among job-stayers, little changed from March, though job-changers saw an average 9.3% uptick in wages, down from 10.1% in March. That perhaps lifts some of the inflationary pressures as the Federal Reserve considers when to cut rates.

Hiring was broad-based, with only the information sector--including telecoms, media and IT--showing weakness, said ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson.

Services led hiring, climbing by 145,000, with more than a third in leisure and hospitality. Goods-producing industries took on 47,000 new jobs.

By region, the South added the most jobs at 124,000 while the West added the fewest at 11,000.

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.

Official employment figures from the Labor Department will be published Friday. Economists expect the report to show continued labor-market resilience in April, albeit decelerating a little from March's 303,000 new jobs.


Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-01-24 0855ET