By Will Feuer

Hiring among U.S. private-sector employers was robust for a second consecutive month in May, according to data from the ADP National Employment Report released Thursday.

Employment in the nonfarm private sector rose by 278,000 last month, compared with a gain of 291,000 in April, ADP said. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected private employment to rise by 180,000.

April's reading was revised down from an initial estimate of 296,000 to 291,000.

Annual wage growth slowed again in May to 6.5% from 6.7% in April, according to the survey. Pay data is based on the salaries of almost 10 million individual employees over a 12-month period.

"This is the second month we've seen a full percentage point decline in pay growth for job changers," ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said. "Pay growth is slowing substantially, and wage-driven inflation may be less of a concern for the economy despite robust hiring."

The ADP estimate is based on aggregated payroll data of more than 25 million U.S. workers and is independent from U.S. Labor Department official data. The ADP series can diverge considerably from the Labor Department's data.

Employment gains were driven by small- and medium-sized businesses, which added 235,000 and 140,000 jobs, respectively. Large businesses registered reduced employees by 106,000 in May.

By sector, services providers created 168,000 jobs, with the leisure-and-hospitality sector adding 208,000 payrolls. But financial activities lost 35,000 jobs and payrolls in education and health services fell by 29,000.

Goods producers added 110,000 jobs, with 64,000 new payrolls in construction and 94,000 in natural resources and mining. Manufacturing lost 48,000 jobs, though.

The U.S. Labor Department is scheduled to release its employment report Friday. Economists polled by the Journal expect nonfarm payrolls to increase by 190,000 in May, and the unemployment rate is forecast to edge up to 3.5%.

Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 01, 2023 08:50 ET (12:50 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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