The employment report prepared by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and Moody's Analytics showed on Wednesday the U.S. private employers shed 123,000 jobs in December. This marked the first monthly decrease in private-sector employment since April.

Economists had expected an increase of 88,000.

The November number saw a light downward revision to 304,000 from the originally reported 307,000.

“As the impact of the pandemic on the labor market intensifies, December posted the first decline since April 2020,” noted Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute. “The job losses were primarily concentrated in retail and leisure and hospitality.