Fewer jobs lost from payrolls in November, says ADP

Newly released data may produce mixed emotions for jobless struggling with debt management problems, as more than 160,000 jobs were cut in November despite employers’ reducing the amount of jobs they are shedding yet again.

According to ADP’s most recent national employment report released on Wednesday, nonfarm private employment payrolls decreased by a seasonally adjusted figure of 169,000 from October to November. The figure was in itself a decline of 26,000 from the seasonally adjusted payroll declines found in the previous month’s report.

The results also represented the eighth straight month that fewer jobs had been shed from payrolls than the month before.

"We’re going to see job losses extend well into 2010," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com, told BusinessWeek. "The labor market is crawling toward stabilization. We need the labor market to improve to generate the wage income necessary to support spending."

Despite posting their smallest amount of employment losses since July 2008, small-sized businesses – defined as companies with 50 or fewer workers – saw the largest number of employment decline in November of 68,000.

Medium sized businesses – between 50 and 499 workers – saw the second largest rate of decline, losing 57,000 workers from their payrolls, while large businesses – 500 or more workers – had the smallest payroll decline of 44,000.