The U.S. private sector continued to add jobs to open the second quarter of the year, indicating that the labor market is strengthening despite a slight slowdown in the rate of job growth, according to Bloomberg. On Wednesday, ADP Employer Services reported that the U.S. private sector added 179,000 jobs in April from the previous month. The increase was less than the revised job growth of 207,000 during March and also fell short of the 198,000 jobs that economists had expected to be added. The report showed that small- and medium-sized companies added the bulk of the new jobs, with each segment adding 84,000 positions.
Steven Ricchiuto of Mizuho Securities said, “This pace keeps things moving forward,” although he warned that the current level of job growth is “not at a strong enough growth rate to really, really improve labor market conditions and improve the economy.” In a separate report, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that planned firings dropped by 4.8% year-over-year in April to 36,490, and John Challenger said, “The slow pace of downsizing suggests employers remain optimistic about business conditions going forward.” He added, “The weak link in the job market right now is the government sector, which continues to shed employees at a heavy rate.”
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