U.S. Automatic Data Processing (ADP) company’s latest data shows that in April, private sector employment in the U.S. increased by 109k jobs, surpassing market expectations of 99k and significantly accelerating from the revised figure of 61k in March, marking the largest monthly increase since January last year, indicating that the labor market remains resilient.

Structurally, the service industry continues to be the main growth driver, with education and health services adding 61k jobs, trade, transportation, and utilities increasing by 25k, and the construction sector contributing 10k jobs. The corporate size distribution shows a “strong at both ends, weak in the middle” pattern: small businesses with fewer than 50 employees and large companies with over 500 employees added 65k and 42k jobs respectively, while medium-sized enterprises showed relatively weak hiring. Wage growth slightly declined, with annual salaries for retained employees increasing by 4.4% year-over-year.

This “small non-farm” data exceeded expectations, implying that U.S. residents’ income and consumption foundations remain solid, and there is considerable resistance to inflation easing. This further reinforces the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy stance of maintaining high interest rates and being cautious about cutting rates, with short-term rate cut expectations being limited. However, the overall employment market remains in a “low hiring, low layoffs” low-mobility state, and historically, ADP data has limited correlation with official non-farm payroll data. Market sentiment remains relatively rational, with attention now turning to the upcoming April non-farm employment report.