Businesses added 119,000 jobs in March, payroll processor ADP said Wednesday in a report, below economists' expectations. Job growth picked up from the prior month but remained mired in a spring slowdown.

A survey by the payroll processor ADP indicated that U.S. companies added the fewest jobs in seven months in April.

In another sign of a slowdown by the U.S. labor market, payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) released a report on Wednesday showing that private sector employment increased by much less than expected in the month of April.

Economists had expected employment to increase by about 155,000 jobs compared to the addition of 158,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital, said, "The U.S. ADP national employment report missed expectations in April, and then some, which is, in turn, lowering expectations for the official jobs report due out Friday."

However, Lee noted that the ADP number is not a perfect indicator of the official payroll figure, which includes both public and private sector jobs.

 A month ago, the bureau said there were just 88,000 jobs added to public and private payrolls in March. According to Bloomberg News, economists expect to hear Friday that employers added 148,000 jobs in April.