The U.S. added 40,000 jobs in December, a continued slowing in job growth, according to the national employment report released today by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP). Job growth averaged 118,000 during the three-month period from September through November. The U.S. added 173,000 jobs in November, which reflects a downward revision of 16,000.

Employment in the service sector grew by 71,000 jobs while employment in the goods-producing sector fell by 31,000.

Residential construction and financial activity related to home sales continued to feel the effects of the subprime mortgage fallout. Construction employment fell by 17,000 in December, while employment in financial activities dropped by 5,000.

The ADP report is based on data from ADP derived from an anonymous subset of roughly 500,000 U.S. business clients.