A 'Now Hiring' sign sits in the window of a Denny's restaurant on November 19 in Miami. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Small businesses are “starting to crack” amid a weakening economy, rising inflation and fickle consumers; and they drove job losses in the US private sector in November, new data showed Wednesday.

Payroll giant ADP estimated that 32,000 jobs were lost in the private sector last month, a large drop-off from the upwardly revised 47,000 jobs gained in October.

The job losses were overwhelmingly at small establishments (classified as having between one and 49 employees), which shed an estimated 120,000 jobs last month. Medium and large businesses added 51,000 jobs and 39,000 jobs, respectively.

Economists were expecting that 40,000 jobs would be added, according to FactSet.

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