The US private sector shed 371,000 jobs in July, sharply lower than the preceding month but more than expected amid the severe and long recession, a survey by payrolls firm ADP showed Wednesday.
The number of private non-farm jobs that vanished last month exceeded the 350,000 forecast by most analysts.
The ADP National Employment Report said a revised 463,000 jobs were shed in June, slashing 10,000 jobs from its initial estimate.
The decline in nonfarm payrolls in July was the smallest since October 2008 and extends "the notable improvement" between the first and second quarters of 2009, the firm said.
However, ADP warned, ''despite recent indications that overall economic activity is stabilizing, employment, which usually trails overall economic activity, is likely to decline for at least several more months, albeit at a diminishing rate.''
The report provides a snapshot on the ailing US labor market in the world's biggest economy, reeling from the worst recession since the Great Depression, ahead of the government's official monthly data, which covers the public and private sectors.
The Labor Department is to publish July jobs data Friday. Most analysts expect the unemployment rate climbed to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in June, a 26-year high, amid a painful recession that began in December 2007.
They also anticipate that the economy shed 328,000 jobs from non-farm payrolls.
The ADP report of a bigger-than-expected July fall in private sector jobs was ''adding some uneasiness among (equity) traders ahead of Friday's labor report,'' said Charles Schwab & Co. analysts in a client note.
The analysts said that the ADP report ''has not been a reliable gauge of the labor report, although adjustments have been made recently.''
