WASHINGTON — U.S. companies added just 102,000 jobs in June, a possible signal of a coming increase in the unemployment rate.
Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that the meager gains — after just 41,000 jobs were added in May — indicate a slowdown in the economy. The job growth of the past two months has not been substantial enough to keep pace with population growth, potentially indicating that the government’s unemployment rate of 3.6 percent could rise, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
“It looks like unemployment is close to its bottom in this business cycle and will begin to move higher,” he said. “It is now clear that the slowdown we’re experiencing is significant and the economy is very close to what I would call a stall-out speed.”
