Investing.com -- The number of workers hired by US private employers was greater than anticipated in September after it slipped to a three-and-a-half year low in the prior month.
Private payrolls rose by 143,000 last month, increasing from an upwardly-revised mark of 103,000 in August, according to data from payrolls processor ADP. Economists had expected a reading of 124,000.
Wednesday's total serves as a precursor to the all-important nonfarm payrolls report later in the week. Investors will be closely watching the figures for indications about the health of labor demand in the US, which could influence how the Federal Reserve approaches further possible interest rate reductions this year.
Last month, the Fed slashed rates by half a percentage point, a move that officials later argued stemmed from a desire to bolster labor demand during a time of subsiding price pressures.
On Monday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed would likely opt for more traditional quarter-point interest rate cuts moving forward, but stressed that the future path of borrowing costs is not on a preset course.
Powell also said the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee is not "in a hurry to cut rates quickly."
He defended last month's super-sized cut as a reflection of the FOMC's "growing confidence that, with an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, strength in the labor market can be maintained in a context of moderate economic growth and inflation moving sustainably down to 2%."
On Tuesday, US job openings unexpectedly increased slightly in August, potentially indicating some resilience in cooling labor demand in the third quarter.
The closely-monitored Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that available positions, a proxy for labor demand, rose to 8.040 million on the final business day of August, climbing from an upwardly-revised tally of 7.711 million in July. Economists had predicted the so-called JOLTS report would dip marginally to 7.640 million.
In July, the number slipped to its lowest mark in three-and-a-half years, which was seen as a possible sign that the US jobs market was losing steam -- albeit in an orderly fashion.