ADP said the private sector shed a net 203k jobs in Oct, a touch more than expectations of a drop of 198k. It is though the smallest amount of job losses since July ’08 but is now running 21 straight months. Sept was revised up by 27k to a loss of 227k. The goods producing sector lost 117k jobs, 65k of which was in manufacturing. The service sector shed 86k jobs. As has been seen, small and medium size businesses have mostly led the job cuts. Construction jobs fell by 51k and total job losses in this industry is now 1.675mm since the top in Jan ’07. The financial services sector saw a decline of 18k jobs, down for a 23rd straight month. With the monthly correlation to the government Payroll figure being tenuous, the markets will await Friday’s number before drawing conclusions on the labor market but today’s report still reflects a tough environment for jobs, albeit less so. Friday’s estimate, which includes the public sector, is -175k.
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