Free Republic

Omicron has taken a much bigger bite 0ut of the labor market than expected, data from payroll processing firm ADP indicated Wednesday. The number of workers on private payrolls fell by 301,000 in January, falling far short of expectations for growth of 225,000 jobs. This was the first decline in payrolls reported by ADP since 2020. The leisure and hospitality sector shed 154,000 jobs. Trade, transportation, and utilities dropped 62,000 workers. Other services saw payrolls decline by 23,000. Health and education jobs fell by 15,000. Information technology jobs fell by 8,000 and financial services sank by 9,000. Manufacturers cut 21,000...

Companies shed 301,000 jobs last month, sharply missing the 207,000-job gain that economists surveyed by Refinitiv had predicted and a major drop from the downwardly revised gain of 776,000 in December. It marked the first time that ADP reported negative growth since December 2020, when companies shed 123,000 jobs before the vaccines were available.