In signs of improving labour market situation, US employers slashed as many as 84,000 private sector jobs in December 09, the lowest employment cuts in nearly two years.
Going by the latest ADP National Employment Report, non-farm private employment decreased to 84,000 in December 2009.
"The decline in December was the smallest since March 2008. Employment losses are now rapidly diminishing and, if recent trends continue, private employment will begin rising within the next few months," the report released today said.
In November, the count of private sector job losses was revised to 1,45,000 from the previous projection of 1,69,000.
Rattled by the financial turmoil, millions of jobs have vanished in the country as companies resorted to massive layoffs as part of their cost cutting measures.
According to the report, private employment in the service-providing sector rose by 12,000 last month whereas, jobs in the goods-producing segment dropped by 96,000.
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The report is a measure of employment derived from an anonymous subset of roughly 5,00,000 US business clients.
Large businesses -- those with 500 or more workers -- saw employment fall by 34,000, while at medium-size businesses, having between 50 and 499 employees, jobs decreased by 25,000.
"Employment among small-size businesses, defined as those with fewer than 50 workers, declined 25,000," the report said.