For the month of July U.S. companies hired 218,000 workers. That is a fourth consecutive month in which the private sector hired more than 200,000, even though the number fell short of analyst’s expectations. In the month of June the private sector hired 281,000 jobs which was the strongest since November 2012. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics said, “The July employment gain was softer than June, but remains consistent with a steadily improving job market.”