By Kathleen Madigan, The Wall Street Journal

Private businesses hired at an anemic pace in April as factory jobs declined, according to a report released Wednesday.

A separate report showed that factory orders fell at the sharpest pace in three years in March, a sign that demand is slowing, in an uneven economic recovery.

Private-sector jobs in the U.S. increased 119,000 last month, according to a national employment report calculated by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc.ADP -0.94% and the consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. The gain was far less than economists’ median expectation of 175,000 in a survey done by Dow Jones Newswires. The March data were revised to show an advance of 201,000 instead of the 209,000 increase reported earlier.

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