Private-sector employment slowed in December, according to data released Wednesday morning.

Employers added 153,000 private-sector jobs last month, below the market’s expectations, and down from November, which was cut to 215,000, ADP Inc. reported. Economists polled by Econoday had forecast a December gain of 172,000 jobs, compared with an original estimate of 216,000 for November.

The dollar DXY, +0.14% softened slightly after the employment report was released in the New York morning.

“Job growth remains strong but is slowing,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which prepares the report using ADP’s data.

According to ADP, large private-sector businesses added 63,000 jobs in December, midsized businesses added 71,000 jobs and small businesses added 18,000.

For all of 2016, the private sector generated an average of 174,000 jobs a month, down from an average of 209,000 monthly in 2015.

All of the gains were in the service sector — 169,000 jobs were added there, compared with a loss of 16,000 for goods producers. Manufacturing lost 9,000 jobs in the month.

“Overall, job-growth trends are fading but are plenty strong enough not to worry about it for now,” said Robert Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics.

Analysts use ADP’s data to get a feeling for the Labor Department’s employment report, which will be released Friday and covers government jobs in addition to those in the private sector.

Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the government’s report for December to show that nonfarm payrolls accelerated to 183,000 jobs, a bit better than the 178,000 pace in November.

Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said taken literally the Thursday data suggest a downside risk to the Labor Department report. But he said the deviation between the ADP data and the government data has been larger on average in December than in any other month. December is typically when employers drop from their listings all individuals who have left permanently, he said.