ADP Employment Falls More than Expected
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A report on private-sector unemployment figures put out by the human-resources firm American Data Processing (ADP) - Get Report showed that the economy lost 298,000 jobs in August, -- a worse-than-expected reading, though also the softest decline since last September.
Analysts were expecting the ADP National Employment Report to show a decline of 50,000 during the month.
The less-than-excellent report appeared set to weigh on equities at least a bit Wednesday, with futures mixed before the bell and stocks trading relatively flat at the open.
ADP, a payroll and HR-services firm, indicated that small and medium-sized business took it on the chin in August. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees cut a total of 122,000 jobs in the month, while those with 50 to 499 on their payrolls lost a collective 116,000.
Employment at large businesses, or those with 500 or more workers, declined by 60,000, ADP said.
-- Written by Scott Eden in New York
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Scott Eden has covered business -- both large and small -- for more than a decade. Prior to joining TheStreet.com, he worked as a features reporter for Dealmaker and Trader Monthly magazines. Before that, he wrote for the Chicago Reader, that city's weekly paper. Early in his career, he was a staff reporter at the Dow Jones News Service. His reporting has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Men's Journal, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, and the Believer magazine, among other publications. He's also the author of Touchdown Jesus (Simon & Schuster, 2005), a nonfiction book about Notre Dame football fans and the business and politics of big-time college sports. He has degrees from Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis.
