Monthly figures from payroll administrator ADP show that only 37,000 new jobs were created in the private sector in the USA in May. It was clearly fewer than anticipated and also the lowest increase in two years.
It can be compared to April, when 60,000 new jobs were created in the sector according to revised figures. The average prognosis among analysts pointed towards the creation of 114,000 new jobs in April, according to news agency Bloomberg's compilation.
On the American stock exchanges, a plus in early trading quickly turned into a smaller decline.
The ADP report comes, as usual, a few days before the major monthly employment report for the USA from the Labor Department, which will be released on Friday.
USA's President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that the central bank chief Jerome Powell lower the interest rate, was quick to comment since the new job figures were presented.
"Too late. Powell must lower the interest rate now", he writes on his own platform Truth Social.
