US: Private sector employment rises by 106K in January vs. 178K expected

• Employment in US private sector grew at a softer pace than expected in January.
• US Dollar continues to weaken against its rivals after the data.

The data published by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed on Wednesday that private sector employment in the US rose by 106,000 in January. This reading followed December's growth of 253,000 (revised from 235,000) and missed the market expectation for an increase of 178,000 by a wide margin.

Commenting on the data, "in January, we saw the impact of weather-related disruptions on employment during our reference week,” noted Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. "Hiring was stronger during other weeks of the month, in line with the strength we saw late last year."

Regarding wage inflation, "pay growth for job stayers held at 7.3% for the second month, with most industries little changed," ADP said in its publication. "One outlier was the information sector, where pay growth decelerated from 7% to 6.6%. For job changers, pay growth accelerated to 15.4 percent."

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index came under renewed bearish pressure after the disappointing data and was last seen losing 0.32% on the day at 101.75.