Private payrolls post first drop since April as coronavirus spread hits job growth, ADP says

Private payrolls in December contracted for the first time since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report Wednesday from ADP.

The decrease of 123,000 provided a sign that the U.S. economy had cooled considerably heading into the end of 2020. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting growth of 60,000.

December’s decline countered seven straight months of job growth coming out of the massive furloughs instituted in March and April as large swaths of the U.S. economy shut down to combat the Covid-19 spread.

Companies laid off a net 19.4 million workers in April and have recovered 9.9 million since, according to ADP estimates that sometimes have differed…