ADP Report: ‘Unprecedented’ April Job Losses

ADP, Roseland, N.J., reported a staggering drop of 20.2 million private-sector jobs in the U.S. between March and April.

The company’s monthly National Employment Report said job losses were uniform across the board: 6.005 million in job losses among small firms; 5.3 million job losses among medium-sized firms; and 8.96 million job losses involving large firms.

“Job losses of this scale are unprecedented.” Said Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “The total number of job losses for the month of April alone

was more than double the total jobs lost during the Great Recession. Additionally, it is important to note that the report is based on the total number of payroll records for employees who were active on a company’s payroll through the 12th of the month. This is the same time period the Bureau of Labor and Statistics uses for their survey.”

BLS will release its April unemployment report this Friday, May 8. Last month, BLS reported just 701,000 jobs lost, with the unemployment rate jumping to 4.4 percent. But the report was based on partial data before the full brunt of unemployment claims slammed the U.S. in mid-March. Over the past six weeks, more than 30 million Americans have filed initial unemployment claims, representing 18 percent of the pre-coronavirus workforce.

By sector, ADP reported goods-producing employers saw a drop of 4.22 million jobs and the service-providing sector shed 16 million jobs.