Wall Street Journal Assistant Editor-in-Chief James Freeman, FOX Business ‘Dagen McDowell, EmployBridge chief economist Joanie Courtney, FreedomWorks economist Steve Moore, Wall Street Journal senior writer Jon Hilsenrath, FOX Business’ Charles Payne and Fox News contributor Brian Brenberg in October work report.
U.S. private employers cut their jobs for the first time in six months in December, indicating that the recovery of the coronavirus crisis has come to a halt amid a boom in cases nationwide, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.
The report showed that companies shook off 123,000 jobs last month, predicting the increase of 88,000 people that the economists surveyed by Refinitiv predicted.
“As the impact of the pandemic on the labor market increases, December showed the first decline since April 2020,” Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP research institute, said in a statement.
COMMANDED PLATFORM WILL PAY TAXES BY ALMOST $ 3.4 T, STUDY FINDINGS
The job losses were strongly concentrated in the leisure and hospitality industry, one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic. The industry shrugged off 58,000 jobs in December when state and local governments implemented new lock-in measures to restrict indoor dining, while cold weather limited the ability of restaurants to offer outdoor dining.
Trade, transport and utilities eliminated 50,000 employees, and information services reduced 6,000. Production also declined by 21,000 jobs, while education fell by 1,000.
Large companies accounted for the bulk of the layoffs: businesses with more than 1,000 employees cut 169,000 jobs last month. Small businesses with less than 20 workers cut 16,000 jobs. Medium enterprises increased their staff by 37,000.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO by clicking here
Although the data is typically a good indication of what to expect in the Labor Department’s more accurate report, the ADP figure has regularly missed the government’s score since the pandemic began in mid-March. (In June, for example, ADP initially said that private employers added 2.37 million jobs – well below the 4.8 million reported by the US government. In addition, the economy lost 2.7 million jobs in May, while the department of labor a profit of 2.5 million).
The Labor Department’s work report, released Friday at 8:30 p.m., is predicted to show that the U.S. economy added 100,000 jobs last month, up from the 245,000 increase in November. Analysts expect unemployment to remain constant at 6.7%.