Private-Sector Jobs Report Reveals Nosedive Not Seen Since Covid
The ADP’s new jobs report shows the private sector is shedding thousands of jobs.

In the latest sign that the labor market is experiencing a serious contraction, the U.S. private sector lost 32,000 jobs in September, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.
The loss, the worst figure reported by the payroll-processing company in two and a half years, was far below the 45,000-job increase that had been forecast by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
ADP data from August was also revised, indicating that the economy actually shed 3,000 private-sector jobs, rather than gaining 54,000 as was previously reported.
That makes August and September the first consecutive negative months since Covid-19 was ravaging the economy. The ADP also reported losses in June, meaning it’s also the first time since the pandemic era when three of four consecutive months have seen losses. (In 2020, the private sector shed jobs each month from March to July.)
The worrying snapshot of Trump’s economy comes as this week’s government shutdown has cast the United States into a blackout of government economic data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled to deliver its much-anticipated monthly jobs report on Friday (after a delay from last week) but will not do so should the shutdown persist through the end of the week.