ADP-Moody's: U.S. added just 167,000 jobs in July

Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. economy added 167,000 workers during the month of July, ADP and Moody's Analytics said Wednesday in its monthly preview of the government jobs report.

The report said analysts found anemic job growth across the board, with payrolls at mid-sized companies actually declining by 25,000 positions. About 7.6 million total U.S. jobs were added in May and June, according to government figures.

Experts said the low figure may signal a road bump in the U.S. economic recovery after months of hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The labor market recovery slowed in the month of July," Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement. "We have seen the slowdown impact businesses across all sizes and sectors."

The report said large businesses, those with at least 500 employees, added 129,000 jobs while small companies, with fewer than 50, added 63,000.

The assessment from ADP and Moody's comes two days before the government's official jobs report.

The private report often projects labor figures that split significantly with the official assessment. ADP and Moody's, for example, reported a loss of 2.4 million jobs for May -- two days before the Labor Department's report showed an addition of 2.5 million positions.

Most experts project the government's July report to show a gain of 1.6 million jobs.