Private sector sheds 27,000 jobs in March as coronavirus ripples through US economy

Coronavirus cases climb as job losses increase: Understanding the impact of the pandemic

Barron’s Roundtable of Barron’s associate editor Jack Hough, Barron’s markets editor Ben Levisohn, Barron’s reporter Carleton English and Barron’s senior writer Al Root are joined by Guggenheim Partners’ CIO Scott Minerd to discuss how the coronavirus crisis isn’t over yet and the full impact on the economy is not yet known.

Private employers slashed 27,000 jobs in March, shortly before the worst of the coronavirus-induced shutdowns began to batter the U.S. economy, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.

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Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected 150,000 job losses in the private sector. It's the first time in nearly 10 years that jobs have disappeared in the private sector.

Actual losses are significantly worse than Wednesday's report, which covers only the period leading up to March 12, before the country took unprecedented measures to mitigate the spread of the virus, reflects.

Last week, the Labor Department said that a record-shattering 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment between the period of March 14 and March 21, eclipsing the number of jobless claims seen during the worst of the 2008 financial crisis.

The data precedes the release of a more closely watched update from the Labor Department on Friday, which is expected to show the U.S. economy lost 100,000 jobs in March, snapping a 113-month streak of payroll gains. Analysts anticipate unemployment will jump to 3.8 percent, up from 3.5 percent in February — a half-century low — making it the largest increase in more than nine years.

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