The US private sector cut close to half a million jobs last month, according to a report published by Automatic Data Processing (ADP).

The business outsourcing specialist has estimated that the number of employment opportunities within the private US labor market declined by 473,000 in June - bringing the average monthly drop in the last quarter to 492,000 jobs.

Specifically, the report disclosed that the manufacturing and construction sectors contributed a significant proportion of this figure - with 250,000 workers laid off in these two industries last month.

Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisors, issued a forecast for the return of growth in the North American country's labor market.

He told Bloomberg: "We are still months away from a trough in employment and the resumption of net employment gains is going to have to wait until early 2010."

The US unemployment rate now stands at 9.5 per cent of the working population, according to the Labor Department.