Hiring at private companies unexpectedly swelled in April, countering expectations for a cooling job market ahead, payroll processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.

Private payrolls rose by 296,000 for the month, above the downwardly revised 142,000 the previous month and well ahead of the Dow Jones estimate for 133,000. The gain was the highest monthly increase since July 2022.

The surge comes despite Federal Reserve efforts to slow economic growth and in particular to tame a powerful labor market that has added more than 800,000 jobs this year by ADP’s count. An imbalance of demand over supply in the labor market has created strong wage gains that are reflected in persistent inflation pressures.

One positive sign for the Fed is that annual pay rose 6.7% over the past year, a deceleration from gains that had been consistently coming in above 7%.

“The slowdown in pay growth gives the clearest signal of what’s going on in the labor market right now,” Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, said. “Employers are hiring aggressively while holding pay gains in check as workers come off the sidelines.”