The U.S. lost 532,000 private-sector nonfarm jobs between April and May on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the National Employment Report released today by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP). "This is a notable improvement over the first three months of the year when monthly losses averaged 691,000," said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, ADP's partner in producing the report.

Service-sector employment fell by 265,000 jobs between April and May, according to the report. The goods-producing sector shed 267,000 jobs.

Medium-sized businesses posted the largest decrease in employment between April and May, down 223,000. Next came small businesses, down 209,000; and large businesses, down 100,000.

Data in the ADP report is derived from an anonymous subset of U.S. businesses clients.