Payroll Growth Slows in June

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he pace of hiring slowed in June and the manufacturing sector cut jobs for the first time in five months, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Payrolls grew by 112,000 in June, which was less than half the 250,000 Wall Street economists were expecting, Bloomberg News and Reuters reported. Labor said the unemployment rate held steady at 5.6% for a straight month.

Job gains in the previous two months also were revised downward by a total of 35,000. Still, the number of jobs created this year was the most for any six-month period since December 1999-May 2000.

Manufacturers lost 11,000 jobs last month, the first decline since January. The manufacturing workweek fell to 40.8 hours from 41.1 in May.

Employment in service-producing industries, which include retailers, rose 122,000 last month after rising 169,000 in May.