Job growth of the U.S. private sector slowed down a little bit in June, said a private survey released Thursday.
U.S. private companies added 158,000 jobs in June, down from a revised 230,000 in the previous month and the second lowest monthly increase in 2017, said the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics, based on a monthly survey.
"Despite a slight moderation in the month of June, the labor market remains strong," said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute.
In June, small firms added 17,000 jobs, while mid-sized firms added 91,000 jobs and large companies added 50,000, according to the survey.
"Abstracting from the monthly ups and downs, job growth remains a stalwart between 150,000 and 200,000," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "At this pace, which is double the rate of labor force growth, the tight labor market will continue getting tighter," he added.
The ADP survey studied data from private businesses with more than 23 million workers on payrolls but excluded government job growth.
The Labor Department will release its jobs report for June on Friday, which is the key indicator for the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions.
Last month, the Fed had raised the benchmark interest rates for the fourth time since December 2015 and unveiled a plan to trim its balance sheet later this year.
Most analysts and market participants believed that the Fed will likely start shrinking its balance sheet in September, with a further rate increase in December.
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