Private Sector Lost 23,000 Jobs in March
Despite predictions that the Labor Department will announce Friday that the American economy, as a whole, added 200,000 jobs, that’s not necessarily completely good news. According to a report from payroll processor ADP, all those jobs are government jobs — and mostly temporary ones from the Census Department. They say that the private sector actually lost 23,000 jobs in March.
“„The latest ADP report showed large businesses with 500 employees or more shed 7,000 and medium-size businesses lost 4,000 workers in March. Small businesses that employ fewer than 50 workers cut 12,000 jobs. Service-sector jobs added 28,000, while factory jobs fell by 9,000 in March.
The president signed into law a much-heralded jobs bill on March 18th that will give private-sector employers a break on payroll taxes for the rest of 2010 if they hire people who are already unemployed. These data shows that getting businesses to stop laying people off might still be as important as convincing them to hire.
