Two reports on the US manufacturing industry come up with slightly different pictures for the sector, but both agree that it continued to add jobs in July, albeit slower than in the previous month.

The slowdown in job creation was seen as only marginal by Markit’s US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, which also saw the industry as a whole expanding, but by a slightly slower rate than in June.

The US Institute for Supply Management (ISM) ‘July 2012 Report on Business’ noted a more significant drop in employment growth in the industry and showed the sector as a whole shrinking for the second consecutive month.

The Markit and ISM surveys respectively saw this as the 30th and 34th consecutive month of job creation.

Says Markit chief economist Chris Williamson: “Firms continued to take on extra staff, but hiring is nothing like as widespread as earlier in the year. Companies are clearly taking a cautious approach to recruitment and the job market will most likely remain subdued until global economic uncertainty begins to lift.”

The ISM data also attests to job growth having slowed through 2012, with 20% of the businesses questioned saying they had a higher level of employment in July than in the previous month, compared with 34% in April.