U.S. private sector in August adds fewest jobs in 3 years

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A report released Thursday showed that the U.S. private sector added 99,000 jobs in August, the fewest in more than three years, signaling that the job market continued to cool.

The latest data was announced by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics in a National Employment Report based on a monthly survey.

Job creation among private employers slowed for the fifth straight month and wage growth was stable, according to the report.

The July total of jobs added was revised down from 122,000 to 111,000.

"The job market's downward drift brought us to slower-than-normal hiring after two years of outsized growth," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.

Year-over-year pay gains were flat in August, remaining at 4.8 percent for job-stayers and 7.3 percent for job-changers, the report showed.

The ADP report came one day before the crucial monthly employment report released by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will include employment data from both the private sector and the government.