The economy is still losing jobs at a rapid pace for the month of May according to the ADP Employment Survey released today. It said that 532,000 jobs were lost in May. 

The report came in slightly worse than expectations. Addtionally, data from April report was revised down by 45,000 to show a monthly loss of 545,000.

The ADP press release said that April and May compare favorably to the first three months of the year which showed an average job loss of $691k a month, but that the labor market will continue to show significant losses in the coming months.

“Despite some recent indications that economic activity is stabilizing, employment, which usually trails overall economic activity, is likely to decline for at least several more months, although perhaps not as rapidly as during the last six months,” a press release stated.

Employment in the service sector fell by 265,000 in May, while the goods-producing sector declined by 267,000 jobs. Manufacturing saw its 39th consecutive monthly decline was 149,000 jobs vanished from the sector.

Medium-sized businesses were the hardest hit with a decline of 223,000, while businesses with fewer than 50 employees saw 209,000 jobs lost, and businesses with more than 500 workers watched as 100,000 disappeared.

Construction jobs fell for the 28th straight month as 108,000 jobs were shed, and another 32,000 jobs were cut from the financial services industry.

Looking ahead to Friday’s official NonFarm Payrolls report, economist Millan Mulraine from TD Securities said the ADP figures were consistent with the official statistics showing a print of -470,000, as government hiring is supposed to have created 70,000 jobs in May.

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