The employment report prepared by Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) and Moody's Analytics showed on Wednesday the U.S. private employers added 568,000 jobs in September. This marked the largest advance in private-sector employment since June.

Economists had expected an increase of 428,000.

The August number saw a downward revision to 340,000 from the originally reported 374,000.

“The labor market recovery continues to make progress despite a marked slowdown from the 748,000 job pace in the second quarter,” noted Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Leisure and hospitality remains one of the biggest beneficiaries to the recovery, yet hiring is still heavily impacted by the trajectory of the pandemic, especially for small firms. Current bottlenecks in hiring should fade as the health conditions tied to the COVID-19 variant continue to improve, setting the stage for solid job gains in the coming months.”