ADP Reports: US Private sector cut 254,000 jobs vs. expectation of 200,000 for Sept

"Private-sector firms in the U.S. cut 254,000 jobs in September, according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday. 

In August, a revised 277,000 jobs were lost compared with the 298,000 originally reported, ADP said.

Goods-producing jobs fell by 151,000, including 71,000 in manufacturing and 73,000 in construction. Services-producing jobs fell by 103,000.

"Employment losses have diminished significantly over the last two quarters," said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, the economic firm that produces the ADP report from payroll data provided by Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

According to ADP, 7.1 million private-sector jobs have been lost since the recession began, in line with the 7 million lost in the Labor Department's estimate through August.