By Allison Prang 

The nonfarm private sector in the U.S. lost 27,000 jobs in March as businesses, particularly smaller firms, felt the impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Small businesses, or those with between 1 and 49 employees, lost those most jobs, the ADP National Employment Report for March showed. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting a loss of 125,000 jobs. The report is based on data through March 12.

Small businesses lost 90,000 jobs, the report showed, while large businesses, or those with at least 500 employees, added 56,000 jobs. Midsized businesses added 7,000 jobs.

The net decline was seen across both the service-providing and goods-producing sectors, which lost 18,000 jobs and 9,000 jobs respectively.

The report "does not fully reflect the most recent impact of COVID-19 on the employment situation, including unemployment claims reported on March 26, 2020," cohead of the ADP Research Institute, Ahu Yildirmaz, said in prepared remarks. The ADP Research Institute, working with Moody's Analytics, publishes the report each month.

The March jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor, to be released Friday, is also expected to show some of the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, but won't reflect all of it. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal are expecting a loss of 10,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 3.7%.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 01, 2020 09:03 ET (13:03 GMT)