Two private reports released today indicate that the pace of U.S. job losses may be slowing.

According to Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP), a payroll-processing firm, private-sector job cuts totaled 491,000 in April, which is a 31 percent improvement from March, when 708,000 private-sector jobs were lost.

“There’s a sense here of a turn, which is good news” said Joel Prakken, an ADP spokesman and chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC.

Another report released today by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said the number of announced job cuts fell for the third month in a row. According to the outplacement firm, job cuts totaled 132,590 in April, compared with 150,411 in March.

April marked the lowest total since last October, according to Challenger’s report. However, the figure is still 47 percent higher than the job cuts that were announced a year earlier.

“Job cuts are still at recession levels, but the fact that they are falling is certainly promising and may suggest that employers are starting to feel a little more confident about future business conditions,” John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Hopefully, the next few months will bring further relief, as we tend to see downsizing activity slow during the summer months.”

The U.S. Department of Labor is expected to release its employment report on Friday. It is expected the unemployment rate will increase to 8.9 percent.