WASHINGTON - 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 shrank.

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 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 level in December.

All of June's job growth in service industries. The manufacturing sector lost 11,000 jobs, a reversal after four straight months in which factories had added jobs following years of decline.

Bond prices jumped in the wake of the data, because investors are likely to believe the economy is not as strong as they had thought in recent weeks. Stocks appeared set to open lower, likely because of worry that the corporate profits picture may not be as bright as thought.

The dollar lost value against other global currencies immediately after the jobs report.

Analysts said the jobs report was a shock but held off judgment on whether it signaled an impending broader slowdown.

"It was pretty much a weak report, a disappointing report across the board," said economist Henry Willmore of Barclays Capital in New York. "But I don't think it changes the fundamental picture, we would have to see a bit more evidence before it would start to look like the economy is slowing down."

The timing, two days after the Federal Reserve boosted short-term U.S. interest rates by a quarter percentage point and cited the need to check inflation in a quickening economy, was striking. Analysts said it meant, at a minimum, that the U.S. central bank likely would not face pressure to push rates up more quickly than in the quarter point moves now anticipated.

"This pace of job creation shows there is still slack in the labor markets. The bottom line is that this is the type of number that will allow the Fed to continue its tightening at a measured pace," said Alex Beuzelin, a foreign exchange market analyst with Ruesch International in Washington.

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