Massive Jobs Contraction In Small and Medium Sized Businesses

2008 is poised to become of the worst years ever for jobs. So far it is 11 out of 11 months for job losses. December will make it a perfect 12 of 12.

Furthermore, it is now looking likely that December will exceed November's grim total of 533,00 jobs lost. See Jobs Contract 11th Straight Month; Unemployment Rate Hits 6.7% for more details.

ADP National Employment Report

Inquiring minds are pondering the grim statistics in the December 2008 ADP National Employment Report. Here are some highlights.

� Nonfarm private employment decreased 693,000 from November to December 2008 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

� Nonfarm private employment in the service-providing sector fell by 473,000

� Employment in the goods-producing sector declined 220,000, the twenty-third consecutive monthly decline.

� Employment in the manufacturing sector declined 120,000, marking its twenty seventh decline over the last twenty eight months.

� Construction employment dropped 102,000. This was its twenty-first consecutive monthly decline, and brings the total decline in construction jobs since the peak in January 2007 to 809,000.

Private Employment July - December 2008



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Small Business Outlook

Small businesses have been driving most of the employment gains for the last couple of years. In July of 2008 that statistic started to wobble as noted in Downward Spiral In Jobs.

In November of 2008 the ADP Report Shows Contraction in Services and Small Business Jobs.

Floodgates Open On Small Businesses

The small business weakness that started in July has now become a floodgate of job losses. Please consider the December 2008 ADP Small Business Report.

Nonfarm Private Employment Highlights

� Total employment: -693,000
� Small businesses: -281,000
� Medium businesses: -321,000
� Large businesses: -91,000
� Goods-producing sector: -220,000
� Service-providing sector: -473,000
� Manufacturing industry: -120,000

Small businesses represent payrolls with 1-49 employees
Medium businesses represent payrolls with 50-499 employees
Large businesses represent payrolls with more than 499 employees

Nonfarm private payrolls by selected industry sector and size



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Nonfarm Private Employment - Monthly Job Growth by Company Size

Who is ADP?

Here is some information About ADP.

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), with nearly $9 billion in revenues and over 585,000 clients, is one of the world's largest providers of business outsourcing solutions.

The ADP National Employment Report� is a measure of nonfarm private employment, based on a subset of aggregated and anonymous payroll data that represents approximately 400,000 of ADP's 500,000 U.S. business clients and roughly 24 million employees working in all 19 of the major North American Industrial Classification (NAICS) private industrial sectors.

Because ADP pays 1-in-6 private sector employees in the United States every pay period across a broad range of industries, firm sizes, and geographies, it has a unique and significant perspective on the U.S. labor market.

I tip my hat to ADP for making this data available.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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