By Xavier Fontdegloria

The nonfarm private sector in the U.S. created 365,000 jobs in October, suggesting a slowdown in payroll gains, data from ADP National Employment Report showed Wednesday.

Total U.S. nonfarm private employment increased by 365,000 in October from September. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting it to show a much bigger gain of 600,000 jobs.

October's figure signals that the job-creation pace slowed significantly in the month compared with September, when 753,000 jobs were gained, up from an initial estimate of 749,000.

The U.S. has been adding payroll gains uninterruptedly since May, when the economy reopened after a lockdown imposed to control the coronavirus. The labor market, however, is still far from recovering the record-breaking 19.4 million jobs that were destroyed in April and monthly gains are slowing down.

"The labor market continues to add jobs, yet at a slower pace," Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said.

Medium businesses, between 50 and 499 employees, are the ones which added the most jobs, with an increase of 135,000. Large businesses, those of at least 500 workers, created 116,000 jobs and small businesses, with a maximum of 49 employees, gained 114,000 jobs.

By sector, in October the vast majority of jobs were created in the service-providing sector, particularly leisure and hospitality, which had an increase of 125,000 jobs.

The goods-producing sector posted a 17,000 jobs gain, data showed.

"Although the pace is slower, we've seen employment gains across all industries and sizes," Mr. Yildirmaz said.

The report, carried out by the ADP Research Institute along with Moody's Analytics, is based on data through the 12th of the month.

The U.S. Department of Labor is expected to release its October employment report, which covers the same period as the ADP National Employment Report, on Friday. Economists are expecting it to show nonfarm payrolls up 530,000 jobs for the month, and a reduction in the unemployment rate to 7.7% from 7.9% in September.

Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 04, 2020 08:43 ET (13:43 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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