US private-sector hiring rebounded in September with 90,000 new jobs — the first acceleration in hiring since May, payroll firm ADP reported on Wednesday.

The figure, produced with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, beat the 68,000 forecast and was up from a revised 36,000 in August.

Education and health services led with 55,000 new jobs, followed by leisure and hospitality with 22,000. But financial activities shed 16,000 jobs and professional services lost 11,000.

Pay growth stayed solid: base pay rose 3.2% from a year ago, while job-changers saw base pay jump 4.8%.

“After a three-month slowdown, job creation rebounded and pay growth remained solid,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson.

The report comes ahead of Friday’s official Labor Department jobs data. Economists expect it to show 84,000 new jobs and unemployment steady at 4.1%.

The ADP report is based on anonymised payroll data from more than 26 million US private-sector employees, making it a closely watched early read on the labour market. Hiring had slowed through the summer as employers grew cautious about tariffs and energy costs.

Analysts say September’s rebound, with cooling inflation, strengthens the case that the economy can keep growing without another Fed rate hike.