The United States added 40,000 private-sector nonfarm jobs in May, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the national employment report released today by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP). The report also revised upward its count of jobs gained in April to 13,000 from 10,000.

Employment in the service sector rose by 77,000, according to the report. But employment in the goods-producing sector dropped by 37,000.

In construction, a sector hit hard by the subprime mortgage meltdown, employment fell by 13,000 in May. It was the 18th consecutive month of a decline for construction, but it was the smallest decline since January. Employment in financial activities, another area hit by the meltdown, rose by 5,000.

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