In the News: Job Loss Accelerated in March

Early figures were released today indicating that private sector job loss rose in March to 742,000.

Official tallies from the U.S. government will be released at the end of the week (and we’ll be sure to report on them), but the numbers coming out today from the payroll firm ADP indicate that the recession is far from over.

Analysts had been predicting that layoffs would slow this month to around 633,000. In February, job losses stood at 706,000, so March’s numbers are a clear climb.

I’m geeky enough to whip out the calculator and try to compare apples to apples. In the 28-day month of February, an average of 25,214 jobs were lost every day (isn’t that just staggering?). Now if you multiply that total by the 31 days in March, a constant rate of job loss would actually be 781,642. So if you look at it that way, then March’s rate has slowed… ever so imperceptibly.  I’d hardly declare it good news, but it’s better news than the headlines.