More than 20 million jobs were lost in April due to the COVID-19 crisis – more than double the total jobs lost during the Great Recession – according to the ADP monthly jobs report.
Of those 20 million jobs, about 8.6 million were in the “hospitality” category.
“Job losses of this scale are unprecedented,” says Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, in a statement. “The total number of job losses for the month of April alone was more than double the total jobs lost during the Great Recession.”
“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,” Yildirmaz adds. “This is the same time period the Bureau of Labor and Statistics uses for their survey.”
The job losses were evenly spread among small, medium and large businesses. Small businesses (1-49 employees) dropped about 6 million jobs; medium size businesses (50-499 employees) lost about 5.3 million employees; and large businesses (500 or more employees) shed about 9 million jobs.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics jobs report is expected to be released laster this week.