The labour market showed positive signs of recovering in January. Private-sector jobs in the U.S. fell by 22,000 in January, the smallest drop since February 2008, and service jobs continued to rise, according to a national employment report published Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers.
The ADP loss is slightly below the 30,000-job drop projected by economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey. The estimated change of employment from November to December 2009 was revised by 23,000, from a decline of 84,000 to a decline of 61,000.
The ADP survey tallies only private-sector jobs, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics' nonfarm payroll data, to be released Friday, include government workers.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect the BLS will report January payrolls were unchanged, following the 85,000 jobs lost in December. The total payroll figure should be lifted by expected hiring of census workers by the federal government.
The January unemployment rate is projected to edge up to 10.1% from 10.0%. Friday's report will include benchmark revisions to the establishment survey which covers the nonfarm payroll data.
The latest ADP report showed large businesses with 500 employees or more shed 19,000 jobs and medium-size businesses added 9,000 workers in January. Small businesses that employ fewer than 50 workers cut 12,000 jobs.
Service-sector jobs added 38,000, the second increase in a row, while factory jobs dropped another 60,000 last month.
ADP, of Roseland, N.J., said it processes payments of one in six U.S. workers, while Macroeconomic Advisers, based in St. Louis, is an economic-consulting firm.
In other Wednesday job reports, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said U.S. companies in January announced plans to reduce payrolls by 71,482 workers, the highest job-cut tally in five months.
Last month's job cuts, which were up 59% from December's tally, were led by retail-sector employers, which not only eliminated many of the seasonal positions added between October and December, but also many of the full-time, permanent jobs that existed before the holidays, the Challenger report said.
Plus, TrimTabs Investment Research estimated the U.S. economy lost 104,000 jobs in January. TrimTabs bases its employment estimates on analysis of daily income tax deposits to the U.S. Treasury from all salaried employees.
