US labour market took an unexpected hit in September as private-sector businesses lost 32,000 jobs. This was worse than the 51,000 job increase that economists had predicted.

The drop in private payrolls is raising alarm bells as policymakers, investors, and economists try to gauge the state of the economy amid a government shutdown.

With the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unlikely to release its regular monthly jobs report due to the shutdown , the ADP report has become a key piece of information for tracking the labour market.

August private jobs data

August’s job numbers were also revised downward significantly. Initially, 54,000 jobs were reported to have been added that month, but that figure was corrected to a loss of 3,000.

Small businesses were the hardest hit in Sept

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