US: Private sector employment rises by 208,000 in September vs 200,000 expected

• US private sector employment rose at a slightly stronger pace than expected in September.
• US Dollar Index clings to strong daily gains at around 112.00.

The data published by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed on Wednesday that private sector employment in the US rose by 208,000 in September. This reading followed August's increase of 185,000 (revised from 132,000) and came in slightly better than the market expectation of 200,000.

Commenting on the data, "we are continuing to see steady job gains," said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. "While job stayers saw a pay increase, annual pay growth for job changers in September is down from August.”

Wage inflation

"Job changers, who have been notching double-digit, year-over-year gains since the summer of 2021, lost momentum in September," the ADP noted in its publication. "Their annual pay rose 15.7%, down from a revised 16.2% gain in August. It's the biggest deceleration in the three-year history of our data. For job stayers, annual pay rose 7.8% in September from a year ago, up from a revised 7.7% in August."

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index preserves its bullish momentum after this report and was last seen rising 0.7% on the day at 110.95.