U.S. private sector sees slower job growth in August as hiring shows signs of cooling

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Private companies in the United States added 132,000 jobs in August, indicating slower job growth in a tight labor market, payroll data company Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported Wednesday.

"Our data suggests a shift toward a more conservative pace of hiring, possibly as companies try to decipher the economy's conflicting signals," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

"We could be at an inflection point, from super-charged job gains to something more normal," said Richardson.

Job growth slowed for second-straight month in August, following a gain of nearly 270,000 jobs in July, the report showed.

Large firms hired 54,000 workers, and medium-sized businesses added 53,000. Small companies (with 1-49 employees) added 25,000 employees, but those with 1-19 employees cut 47,000 jobs, the report showed.

Meanwhile, year-over-year change in annual pay was 7.6 percent in August, in line with monthly readings since spring 2022, the report showed.

Despite slower job growth, the number of job openings in the United States rose to 11.2 million by the end of July, as the imbalances between labor market supply and demand remained, the U.S. Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The July unemployment report, which was released early this month, showed that the number of unemployed edged down to 5.7 million. With the increase in job openings, there were nearly two job positions per available worker, signaling widening imbalances.