US Services Sector Growth Accelerates, Private Payrolls Jump

U.S. services sector activity accelerated in August and private employers boosted hiring.

A man rubs his eyes as he waits in a line of job seekers, to attend the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. career fair held by the New York State department of Labor in New York on April 12, 2012. Lucas Jackson/Reuters

WASHINGTON—U.S. services sector activity accelerated in August and private employers boosted hiring, suggesting the economy continued to grow at a moderate pace despite trade tensions which have stoked financial market fears of a recession.

The upbeat reports on Thursday, Sept. 5, came on the heels of data this week showing the manufacturing sector contracted for the first time in August as the trade war between the United States and China intensified.