The pace of U.S. hiring slumped sharply in June after several months of robust gains, the government reported on Friday as employers added fewer than half the number of payroll jobs forecast and hours of work shrunk. The Labor Department said only 112,000 jobs were created last month, far fewer than the 250,000 that Wall Street analysts had anticipated. April and May new-job totals were revised down, to 324,000 and 235,000 respectively, from 346,000 and 248.000. The unemployment rate was unchanged, as expected, at 5.6 percent. June still represented a 10th straight month of job growth that has added about 1.5 million workers to payrolls, but the unexpectedly steep slowdown last month may make it harder for President George W. Bush to campaign for re-election in November on a claim of accelerating economic momentum.
In a sign of broader weakness, the average workweek eased to 33.6 hours in June from 33.8 in May , the shortest since a matching 33.6 hours in December.///