Job creation slows amid big cuts in manufacturing

US job creation is showing signs of slowing as wages remain flat.

That’s according to the monthly report on private sector employment released Wednesday (June 5) by ADP. It showed that the private sector added 152,000 jobs in May, up from 188,000 a month earlier.

The trend was driven, the report said, by a “big drop in manufacturing,” with that sector shedding 20,000 jobs in May. The leisure and hospitality space also saw good hiring, adding 12,000 jobs in the month.

“Job gains and wage growth are slowing in the second half of the year,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. “The labor market is solid, but we are monitoring visible pockets of weakness related to producers and consumers.”

Annual wage growth was 5%, the same position it has held for the past three months. Year-on-year wage increases for people changing jobs fell for the second month in a row, although wages for this group rose 7.8% month-on-month.

The ADP findings came a day after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its summary of job openings and job turnover, showing that the number of job openings in the United States decreased by 4.8% in April.

There were 8.1 million job openings on the last business day of April, up from 8.4 million in March, the BLS said. It marked the lowest number of job openings in more than three years, adding to data showing the labor market is gradually cooling through slower hiring than layoffs.

The largest declines in job openings in April were in health care and social assistance and in state education and local government, the BLS said, with declines of 204,000 and 59,000, respectively.

At the same time, April saw an increase of 50,000 jobs in private education services, the bureau said. This is in line with ADP figures for May, which showed 46,000 new jobs in education/health services.

Both of these reports followed last week’s release of the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, which – among other things – showed Americans’ views on improving labor market conditions.

Fewer respondents said jobs were “hard to find,” outpacing a slight decline in the number who said jobs were “plenty,” and fewer consumers said they expected a deterioration in future business conditions, job availability and income.