US private sector payrolls grow more quickly than expected in June

Hiring in America strengthened by more than expected in June, as services sector firms, especially in Leisure and Hospitality, added to their payrolls.

According to consultancy ADP, private sector payrolls in the US grew by 692,000 last month, led by a 624,000 jump in services.

Goods producing companies accounted for the remaining 68,000 new hires, with employment in Construction up by 47,000.

To take of nevertheless, payrolls for the prior two months were revised lower by a combined 140,000.

Leisure and hospitality registered by far the largest increase with 332,000 new hires, followed by a further 123,000 in Education and Health and another 62,000 in Utilities.

Payrolls in he country's information sector on the other hand shrank by 4,000.

Looking out to the official non-farm payrolls report due out in two days' time, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said Wednesday's ADP numbers pointed to a downside surprise of just 200,000 non-farm payrolls in June.

But for now, Shepherdson was sticking with his call for an increase of 1.0m based among other factors on the latest Homebase data.