WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Private-sector firms in the U.S. eliminated 84,000 jobs in December, according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday. It was the fewest jobs lost since March 2008. The private-sector has shed jobs for 23 months in a row. In November, a revised 145,000 jobs were lost compared with the 169,000 originally reported, ADP said. The ADP index does not include government jobs. The ADP jobs data come two days before the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its estimate of December nonfarm payrolls. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch are looking for payrolls to rise 10,000 in the BLS survey, the first gain in two years.