US private payrolls surge by 324,000 in July, surpassing estimates

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - US private payrolls surged by 324,000 in July, strongly surpassing estimates, according to a report released Wednesday by the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The market expectation was an increase of 189,000 jobs.

The figure in June was slightly revised down from a gain of 497,000 to 455,000.

"The economy is doing better than expected and a healthy labor market continues to support household spending," Nela Richardson, the ADP chief economist, said in the report. "We continue to see a slowdown in pay growth without broad-based job loss."

Among businesses, small and mid-sized enterprises added 237,000 and 138,000 jobs, respectively, while large businesses experienced a decline of approximately 67,000.

The leisure and hospitality sector posted the highest gain, adding 201,000 jobs, whereas the manufacturing sector suffered the largest decline, losing 36,000 jobs.