By MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Payrolls at U.S. companies increased by a tepid 114,000 in July, suggesting modest job growth continued in the fragile economy, according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday. It was the 18th straight month of job growth in the ADP report. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were predicting the ADP figure would rise by 85,000 in July after increasing by a revised 145,000 reported in June. There were modest downward revisions to earlier months’ data totaling 12,000. June’s gain was initially reported as 157,000. The ADP report covers only private-sector employment, and not government jobs. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will report the official jobs numbers for July, which will include both private-sector and public-sector workers. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch are looking for a gain of 75,000 in total employment in July, with the nation’s unemployment rate pegged to remain steady at 9.2%. In June, just 18,000 jobs were created. See our Economic Calendar. The report points to modest payroll gains of about 50,000 in the BLS report, said Paul Dales, an economist for Capital Economics. “That would ease some fears that another recession is imminent, but it would not reduce the unemployment rate.” According to the ADP report, employment in the services sectors rose by 121,000 last month, while jobs in goods-producing sectors fell by 7,000. Manufacturing jobs declined by 1,000. The growth came in professional business services, education and health. Construction and finance lost jobs. Small businesses (under 50 employees) were hiring, adding 58,000 jobs. Medium-sized businesses with 50-499 employees added 47,000 jobs, while large companies added 9,000. Macroeconomics Advisers, an economics firm, computes the report from anonymous payroll data provided by Automatic Data Processing Inc. ADP -2.07% , which handles payrolls for thousands of companies covering millions of workers. “Employment continued to advance at a moderate pace in July,“ economists at Macroeconomic Advisers said in a statement. “However, employment is decelerating,” with the pace of hiring only half as strong as it was at the first of the year. In a separate report, outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas said planned layoffs surged by 59% to 64,414 in July. It’s the highest monthly total since March 2010. The bulk of the planned job cuts occurred in just five companies: Merck MRK +0.82% , Borders, Cisco Systems CSCO +0.45% , Lockheed Martin LMT +0.29% and Boston Scientific BSX -4.05% .

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