The ADP report shows that US companies are cutting jobs for the first time since April

Private sector employers in the United States in December cut their jobs for the first time in six months, indicating a labor market recovery from Corona Virus The crisis has stalled amid a resurgence of cases nationwide, according to the ADP National Employment Report released on Wednesday.

The report showed that companies declined by 123 thousand Careers Last month, it was missing the 88,000 job increase that economists surveyed by the Refinitiv poll forecast.

“As the impact of the epidemic on the job market intensified, December recorded the first decline since April 2020,” Ahu Yıldırmaz, vice president and co-chair of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement.

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The job losses were largely concentrated in the entertainment and hospitality industry, which is one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic. The industry shed 58,000 jobs in December as state and local governments implemented new lockdown measures restricting indoor dining, while cold weather limited restaurants’ ability to serve outdoor food.

Trade, transportation, and utilities cut 50,000 workers, and information services cut 6,000. Manufacturing also saw a decrease of 21,000 jobs, while education fell by 1,000.

Large firms made up the bulk of layoffs: Firms employing more than 1,000 workers cut 169,000 jobs last month. Small firms with fewer than 20 employees cut 16,000 jobs. Medium firms increased their number of employees by 37,000.

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While the data is usually a good indicator of what to expect in the closely watched jobs report by the Labor Department, the ADP number has regularly missed the government count since the pandemic began in mid-March. (In June, for example, ADP initially said that private sector employers added 2.37 million jobs – far less than the 4.8 million jobs reported by the US government. It also said the economy lost 2.7 million jobs in May, while the Labor Department reported. An increase of 2.5 million).

The Labor Department’s jobs report, to be released on Friday at 8:30 am ET, is expected to show that the US economy added 100,000 jobs last month, down from November gains From 245,000. Analysts expect the unemployment rate to stabilize at 6.7%.