Source: Wall Street Journal

Private sector jobs fell 157,000 in the U.S. last month, according to the ADP national employment report, released Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers.

That’s more than the expected 100,000 loss seen in a Dow Jones Newswires survey. September’s report was revised to a loss of 26,000 from a modest 8,000 decline.

“October’s ADP National Employment Report offers evidence of a labor market that continues to weaken,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers. “This month’s employment loss was driven by the goods-producing sector which declined 126,000 during October, its twenty-third consecutive monthly decline.”

He added that October’s overall decline does not reflect the strike of some 27,000 machinists in the aerospace industry during September and October.

Prakken said of the October data that “you’d have to go back to 2002 to see (ADP) job losses like this.. and remember, in 2002 we were emerging from a recession.”

The ADP official said it’s “entirely likely,” that it won’t be long before monthly job losses of 200,000 or more are seen.

An eventual turnaround may not happen until the second half of next year, Prakken added.