Jobs growth has "ground to a halt"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jobs growth has "ground to a halt" and employment will remain weak for several months said the chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers on Wednesday, after the release of its joint private sector jobs report with ADP.

While the downturn in manufacturing and construction employment showed little sign of abating, growth in service sector employment was offsetting that, though it was hardly robust, Joel Prakken told Reuters.

A private report, jointly developed by ADP Employer Services and Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, earlier on Wednesday showed U.S. private-sector employers unexpectedly added 10,000 jobs in April.

The result was much better than economists' median expectation for a drop of 60,000 jobs in April, according to a Reuters poll, but hardly a sign of a strong job market.

"We will probably see several more months of numbers like this before you can see ... more impressive gains," Prakken said.

"I think it is pretty clear that employment has ground to a halt and that the contractions in both manufacturing and construction employment are still ongoing and little sign really of any abatement in that contraction."

The April ADP report showed employment in the service-providing sector of the economy grew by 64,000. Manufacturing employment fell by 26,000 in April and marked the 20th consecutive monthly decline.

Construction employment fell by 28,000. This is the 17th consecutive monthly decline.

The ADP release comes ahead of Friday's monthly jobs report by the government. Analysts expect that to show a fall of 80,000 in April non-farm payrolls.