The ADP report serves as a precursor to the nonfarm payrolls count that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release Friday, ...

Economists had forecast a gain of 140,000 jobs, following July’s 122,000 estimate which was revised downward to 111,000. The August increase was driven by gains in the construction, education ...

"Job gains and pay growth are slowing going into the second half of the year," said Nela Richardson, ADP chief economist. "The labor market is solid, but we're monitoring notable pockets of ...

The ADP figure "suggests that the risk to our forecast that official payrolls rose by 230,000 are tilted towards the downside," Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economists emailed.

"ADP's model is not always reliable, but this is such a big miss that we have to temper our forecast for Friday's official number; we now expect a 100K increase," he said in a research note.

Businesses’ payrolls rose by 475,000 last month, according to ADP Research Institute data released March 2. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 375,000 rise.

Economists had forecast a gain of 140,000 jobs, following July’s 122,000 estimate which was revised downward to 111,000.