Wall Street sagged from the record highs reached yesterday as the latest jobs and services industry data were weaker than expected, prompting concern about the strength of the recovery in the world's largest economy.
Companies added 158,000 workers in March, ADP Research Institute data showed today, well below expectations of economists polled by Bloomberg and Reuters and the smallest increase since October. It was down from a revised 237,000 gain in February.
"The job market continues to improve, but in fits and starts," Mark Zandi, chief economists at Moody's Analytics, said in a statement. One key drag last month on the labour market was the lack of new construction jobs as rebuilding from the damage done by Superstorm Sandy in late 2012 eased.
For the first quarter of 2013, the ADP report has reported an average gain of 191,000 new private sector jobs per month.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management's index of non-manufacturing businesses dropped to 54.4 in March from 56 in February, also falling short of economists' predictions. The accompanying new orders index slid 3.6 percentage points and the employment index decreased 3.9 percentage points.