Private employers cut 22,000 jobs in January, less than the 61,000 jobs lost in December, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

The December decline was originally reported at 84,000.

The median of estimates among economists surveyed by Reuters for the ADP Employer Services report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, was for a fall of 30,000 private-sector jobs last month.

(Reporting by Burton Frierson; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)