U.S. private hiring collapses in April, down 20.2 mln: ADP

More than 20.2 million U.S. private-sector jobs were destroyed in April, and that almost certainly underestimates the damage from the efforts to contain the novel coronavirus, payrolls firm ADP said Wednesday.

More than 16 million jobs were eliminated in the services sector, half of those in leisure and hospitality.

However, the data only reflect payrolls through April 12, so the report "does not reflect the full impact of COVID-19 on the overall employment situation."

The ADP statistics are seen as an indicator of the all-important government jobs report due to be released on Friday, which economists expect will show 28 million jobs lost in the month due to the widespread business shutdowns to contain the virus.

"Job losses of this scale are unprecedented. The total number of job losses for the month of April alone was more than double the total jobs lost during the Great Recession," said Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute.

Goods producing firms shed 4.2 million jobs, more than half from construction and 1.7 million from manufacturing, the report said, with the damage shared across firms of every size.

(AFP)