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ADP report - U.S. loses 522,000 jobs

February 04, 2009

The U.S. lost 522,000 private-sector nonfarm jobs from December to January on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the national employment report released today by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP). It also revised upward the number of jobs lost between November and December by 34,000 to 659,000.

According to the ADP report, the service sector lost 279,000 jobs between December and January and the goods-producing sector shed 243,000.

Employment at medium-sized companies decreased by 255,000, while employment at large firms fell by 92,000 and small companies posted 175,000 fewer jobs.

"Sharply falling employment at medium- and small-size businesses clearly indicates that the recession continues to spread well beyond manufacturing and housing-related activities," according to a statement in the report.

Data in the ADP report is derived from an anonymous subset of roughly 500,000 U.S. business clients. Starting with last month's report, revisions in methodology were made to better accommodate differences between ADP's data and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.