• Private sector employment grew at a stronger pace than expected in April.
• US Dollar Index stays in negative territory at around 101.50.

The data published by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed on Wednesday that private sector employment in the US rose by 296,000 in April. This reading followed the 142,000 (revised from 145,000) increase in March and surpassed the market expectation of 148,000 by a wide margin.

Further details of the publication revealed that the annual pay growth declined to 13.2% from 14.2%.

Commenting on the data, “the slowdown in pay growth gives the clearest signal of what's going on in the labor market right now,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “Employers are hiring aggressively while holding pay gains in check as workers come off the sidelines. Our data also shows fewer people are switching jobs.”

Market reaction

The US Dollar struggles to capitalize on the upbeat data and the US Dollar Index was last seen losing 0.35% on the day at 101.55.