US job gains accelerate slightly in September, ADP says

The US private sector generated 200,000 jobs in September, boosted by hiring at the largest corporations, according to private consultancy ADP.

Economists had been expecting a reading of 188,000.

The previous month's tally was revised a tad lower, to show a gain of 186,000 compared with a preliminary forecast of 190,000.

Companies at the top of the corporate food-chain – those with more than 500 staff – took on another 106,000 hires, with medium-sized ones adding 56,000 new posts and small businesses another 37,000.

"We place limited weight on the ADP employment numbers, given their history of frequent revisions," analysts at Barclays said in a note.

"We look to Friday’s official employment report from the Labor Department as a more reliable indicator of US labor markets. We continue to expect nonfarm payroll growth of 200k and an unchanged unemployment rate of 5.1%."

At 39,000 trade/transportation/utilities firms grew their payrolls by the most, followed by construction companies with 35,000.