Private Hiring Sank in November, ADP Says

Hiring by American businesses dropped last month, according to an estimate from payroll processor ADP, a further setback for a labor market that has slowed this year.

Private employers shed 32,000 jobs in November, ADP estimated, a swing from the 47,000 private-sector jobs that ADP estimated were added in October. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal were expecting to see 40,000 new private-sector jobs.

ADP’s numbers, which come from the anonymized payrolls of ADP’s corporate clients, have long been on economists’ radar. Since October, though, they have taken on special importance given the vacuum of official economic data caused by the recent government shutdown. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, still in catch-up mode three weeks after the shutdown ended, won’t release its look at the November jobs picture until Dec. 16, 2½ weeks behind schedule.

When the BLS report arrives later this month, it will present a more comprehensive picture of the job market that also includes the public sector, with data on how the government shutdown and job losses for federal workers shaped overall employment. The government figures are based on an official survey that may reach a broader, more diverse set of companies.