U.S. private employers cut 20,236,000 jobs in April - ADP

The employment report prepared by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and Moody's Analytics showed on Wednesday the U.S. private employers cut 20,236,000 jobs in April. This was the biggest decline ever in employment.

Economists had expected a drop of 13,050,000.

The increase for March was revised down to -149,000 from the originally reported -27,000.

"Job losses of this scale are unprecedented. The total number of job losses for the month of April alone was more than double the total jobs lost during the Great Recession," noted Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute. "Additionally, it is important to note that the report is based on the total number of payroll records for employees who were active on a company's payroll through the 12th of the month. This is the same time period the Bureau of Labor and Statistics uses for their survey.