U.S. nonfarm private-sector businesses added 428,000 workers in August, according to the monthly private payrolls report from the ADP Research Institute, falling well short of economists’ expectations.
The report, released two days before the federal government’s August jobs report on Friday, showed another month of slowing job gains driven in part by the increase of coronavirus cases earlier this summer and dwindling fiscal support. Economists had expected the ADP report to show a gain of roughly 1 million jobs for private-sector businesses in August.
“The August job postings demonstrate a slow recovery,” said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “Job gains are minimal, and businesses across all sizes and sectors have yet to come close to their pre-COVID-19 employment levels.”
The U.S has gained back roughly 9.3 million of the more than 21 million jobs lost due to the coronavirus pandemic as of July, pushing the unemployment rate down to 10.2 percent from a record-breaking 14.7 percent in April.
But the pace of job gains and the broader economic recovery slowed in July amid a spike in coronavirus cases across the South, Sun Belt and Midwest. July’s gain of 1.8 million jobs was well short of the 4.8 million added in June and 2.7 million added in May.
The new ADP report is the latest sign of the recovery from the coronavirus recession continuing to slow in August. Data from workforce management software company Homebase showed the number of small businesses open and percentage of employees working staying largely flat between July and August.