Washington: The US private sector shed 203,000 jobs in October, the seventh month in a row that employment declines were smaller than in the previous month, payrolls firm ADP said Wednesday.

The ADP survey, a snapshot of nonfarm private employment that offers a clue on the direction of the US labor market, comes ahead of Friday’s official October labor market data, expected to show the unemployment rate rising to 9.9%.

The ADP survey added support to indications that job losses are slowing as the economy pulls out of steep recession that began in December 2007.

“Despite recent indications that overall economic activity is stabilizing, employment, which usually trails overall economic activity, is likely to decline for at least a few more months,” ADP said.

The October ADP reading was slightly worse than the 198,000 job losses expected by most analysts.

The ADP revised downward the October number of job losses, to a decline of 227,000 from the prior estimate of 254,000.