The private sector lost nearly 700,000 jobs last month, according to a report from payroll-processing company Automatic Data Processing Inc., CNNMoney reported.

The report stated the private sector eliminated 697,000 jobs last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, which is an increase of 175,000 jobs, or 25 percent, from the 522,000 private-sector job cuts that were reported in January.

Economists had expected 630,000 positions to be lost last month.

The February total was 158 percent higher than the 72,091 jobs lost in February 2007. And just two months into 2009, employers have already announced 428,099 planned job cuts, which is 191 percent higher than the 147,077 cuts announced in the first two months of last year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

“We probably still have a few million jobs to lose here by the end of the year,” said ADP spokesman Joel Prakken in a conference call.

The surge in job losses has raised the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, and Prakken believes it could rise above 8 percent a year from now. By 2010, Prakken believes the unemployment rate could reach 9 percent and says he expects “gruesome employment numbers” for the next several months.

However, according to a report that was released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of planned jobs cuts announced in February actually fell for the first time since December.

That outplacement firm tracks 25 industry categories, 11 of which announced increased job cuts in February than in January, and 10 of which announced hiring plans.

“The decline in job cuts last month offers some hope that January was the peak and we will now see layoffs begin to fall or at least stabilize,” John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Hopefully we have seen the last instance of monthly job cuts in excess of 200,000.”

Job cut announcements by U.S. employers totaled 186,350 in February, down 23 percent from January’s 241,749.