Private sector hiring picked up in September, according to payroll processor ADP, helped by continued strength in fields like education and healthcare.
Private companies added 90,000 jobs this month, an improvement from a revised 36,000 jobs in August, new data released on Wednesday showed. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a gain of 75,000 jobs.
Workers also saw healthy pay growth, with base wages rising 3.2% year over year, and gross pay up 4.7%. Job changers saw even bigger gains.
“This is a strong report,” ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said. “After a three-month slight slowdown, this is the first re-acceleration that we’ve seen since May.”
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Sectors including education and healthcare, along with leisure and hospitality, drove the bulk of job creation. The education and health services category has long been a leader in job growth, but September’s addition of 55,000 jobs was particularly robust, Richardson said.
“Even for the stalwart sector, it’s still positively strong job growth,” she said.
The financial sector, meanwhile, lost 16,000 positions while business and professional services jobs declined by 11,000.
ADP’s data, which comes from private companies, comes out ahead of the Labor Department’s broader survey data across public and private enterprises on Friday. Economists expect that the economy added 90,000 jobs in that measure.
Claire Boston is a Senior Reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance.
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