Just when it seemed it was going so well, the ADP employment report demonstrated this morning that we have perhaps allowed our hopes to get too high. Expectations called for a gain of 40,000 jobs when the March ADP data was released, that was not the case. Rather than the gain, we were treated to the rather sour surprise of a drop of 23,000 jobs. In reaction to this news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 40 points lower in the first hour of trading.

That said, this may just be a temporary glitch in the jobs picture (I stress the term temporary). The ADP does not take government jobs into account, nor does it effectively "capture changes in the weather." Experts note that a surge in employees thanks to the 2010 Census should help the March payroll data. For this reason, the nonfarm payroll data released on Friday is expected to reflect a gain of 189,000 jobs.

Private-sector firms in the United States cut 22,000 jobs in January, according to ADP data. This is the 24th straight monthly decline in job losses. The 22,000 jobs lost was the fewest since January 2008, when 22,000 jobs were added. Digging into the report, the service sector actually added 38,000 jobs, while good-producing industries slashed 60,000. ADP added that 7.5 million private-sector jobs have been lost thus far during the recession.

This data comes two days before the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports its estimate of January nonfarm payrolls. Forecasts call for an addition of 25,000 jobs, but the unemployment rate is expected to stay at 10%.

Cue the alarms, the warning sirens, the panic and the bear stampede on the Street today ... the U.S. nonfarm payrolls dropped unexpectedly in December.

The good news? November nonfarm payrolls were actually revised higher, reflecting a gain of 4,000 jobs. Despite November's gain, payrolls dropped by 4.2 million in 2009, bringing the two-year total of job losses for the recession to 7.3 million. As for the official unemployment rate, it remained at 10% during December. That said, the data that includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part time increased to 17.3% from 17.2%. Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of the report was that there were "few signs of further improvement in labor conditions."

It looks like we may have a bit of a rally on this final trading day of the first week of December thanks to the nonfarm payroll report. During November, 11,000 jobs were shed, far fewer than the expected 100,000 and the fewest lost jobs since December 2007. And the unemployment rate dropped to 10%.

There is a word of caution, as some economists believe that November's payroll figures could appear better because of the way the government adjusts the data for seasonal factors. That's the only wet blanket I will throw on this news, as the "seasonal factor issue" does not impact the jobless rate.

Is this bad news for the recovery? The Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 10.2% in October, pushing the rate atop the 10% mark for the first time in 26 years. Nonfarm payrolls fell by 190,000 in October, bringing the total number of jobs sacrificed to the recession to 7.3 million. October was the 22nd straight month that saw payrolls decline. According to MarketWatch, expectations were for an unemployment rate of 10% and 150,000 jobs lost.

Yesterday, I took a look at the weekly jobless claims, suggesting that we could see a substantial drop today if this morning's jobs report came in worse than expected. The report was worse, now let's see if yesterday's "good news" and rally is going to give way to a slump like last Friday.

Last week, the number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment dropped by 20,000. As a result, benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 512,000. This drop in filings was the first in the past two weeks, and it is the lowest level of initial claims seen since early January.

That said, initial jobless claims have come in atop 500,000 for the past 51 weeks. In addition, the four-week average of claims dropped 3,000 to 523,700. This total is the lowest since the beginning of the year. Expectations called for initial jobless claims to drop to 520,000 last week, so it may be time to sound the rally bell.

According to a report released by the Labor Department this morning, U.S. nonfarm payrolls dropped by 663,000 in March and the unemployment rate ascended to 8.5% from 8.1%. January's job losses were revised to 741,000 -- which is the worst since 1949. The Labor Department also reported 651,000 jobs lost in February. For the record, March was the fourth straight month with more than 600,000 job losses; a record that no one wanted to see set.

During the past six months, nearly 3.7 million jobs have been lost, or nearly 3% of the workforce. The percentage loss is the second largest in 50 years. Turning to specific industries, service industries saw 358,000 jobs lost and goods-producing industries saw 305,000 jobs lost. While job losses spanned the spectrum of jobs, health care actually saw an increase of 14,000. According to the report, only 22% of the 271 industries were hiring during March.