Private Employment Declines At Slower Pace In September

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Private sector employment continued to decrease in September, according to a report released by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) on Wednesday, although the pace of decline in jobs fell to its slowest rate since July of 2008.

The report showed that non-farm private employment fell by 254,000 jobs in September following a revised decrease of 277,000 jobs in August. The drop in jobs in the previous month was revised from the loss of 298,000 jobs originally reported.

ADP noted that employment losses have diminished significantly over the last two quarters, although it said that employment is likely to decline for at least several more months due to the fact that the labor market trails overall economic activity.

Peter Boockvar, equity strategist for Miller Tabak, noted that the continued weakness in the labor market comes "as companies deal with the continued uncertainty with final demand and sustainability of the impact of short term government steroid shots into the economy."

"Looking forward to Q4 and 2010, those companies with overseas exposure will likely be more inclined to add workers than those more U.S. consumer centric entities," Boockvar added.

The continued drop in employment in September reflected weakness in both the service-providing and goods-producing sectors. The service-providing sector lost 103,000 jobs, while the goods-producing sector cut 151,000 jobs, including 74,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.

Small and medium-size businesses also continued to contribute to the drop in overall employment, cutting 100,000 jobs and 93,000 jobs, respectively. Employment at large businesses fell by a somewhat more modest 61,000 jobs.

Friday morning, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its report on the employment situation in the month of September. The report, which includes government jobs, is expected to show that employment fell by about 180,000 jobs.

While this would reflect a slower pace of decline than the loss of 216,000 jobs reported for August, the unemployment rate is still expected to edge up to a new twenty-six year high of 9.8 percent.

Private sector employment continued to decrease in September, according to a report released by payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) on Wednesday, although the pace of decline in jobs fell to its slowest rate since July of 2008. The report showed that non-farm private employment fell by 254,000 jobs in September following a revised decrease of 277,000 jobs in August. The drop in jobs in the previous month was revised from the loss of 298,000 jobs originally reported. (Market News Provided by RTTNews)