U.S. job picture improves in December

American businesses cut the fewest positions in almost two years in December, according to a report released Wednesday.

ADP Employment Services, a U.S. payroll company, said companies sliced 84,000 jobs from their employment rolls in December, the smallest number since March 2008.

Figures for Decemberalso represented the ninth straight month in which firms reduced the number of jobs they cut.

"Employment losses are now rapidly diminishing and, if recent trends continue, private employment will begin rising within the next few months," ADP said in a press release.

U.S. employers shaved 79,000 jobs between February and March 2008. Since then, American manufacturers and service companies have cut their payrolls by ever-increasing numbers.

Still some pain

Despite the relative optimism regarding December's job figures, however, thelosses the last month of 2009 were worse than what economists had estimated.

As well, outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas Inc., which does a jobssurvey of its own, recently estimated that U.S. corporations cut almost 1.3 million jobs in 2009, the worst showing since 2002.

The company said 17 Americanmetropolitan areas hadunemployment rates greater than 15 per cent in November, according to a recent U.S.Department of Labor study.

ElCentro, Calif., a town of 40,000, was the worst performer with a jobless rate of 29.2 per cent in November.

Yuma, Ariz., was the metropolitan area with the second highest unemploymentin November at 21.1 per cent.

Some economists arenow predicting a U.S. unemployment rate greater than 10 per cent in 2010. BMO Economics, for example, suggests that the American jobless level will be twice as high as the 5.8 per cent unemployment rate in 2008.