New Delhi, July 3 -- WASHINGTON - Americans entered July with three months of wages losing ground to prices. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that employers added 57,000 jobs in June - the weakest monthly gain since February and roughly half the 110,000 that economists surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast.

More troubling than the June headline was what revisions did to the months before it. April's job count was cut by 31,000 and May's was reduced by 43,000, leaving combined payrolls for the two months 74,000 lower than the Labor Department had previously reported. The pattern describes a labor market that has been cooling more consistently, and more quietly, than official data captured in real time.

The leisure and hospit...