Firms hire 112,000 more workers

US companies added 112,000 workers to payrolls in June, less than half the median forecast, and factory jobs fell for the first time in five months, suggesting businesses were turning more cautious entering the year’s second half.

The unemployment rate held steady at 5.6% for a third month, the Labour Department reported in Washington. Job gains in the previous two months were revised down by a total of 35,000, to 235,000 in May and 324,000 for April. June’s total was less than the lowest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.