US equities (to say nothing of the Trump administration, assuming, perhaps misguidedly, they still care about optics), really need this week’s labor market data to come in a semblance of sturdy.

If the jobs numbers start to look as bad as some of the other macro readouts, stocks will be at risk of a deeper correction and the economy of a sharper slowdown.

It was thus great news Wednesday when ADP private hiring printed a significant beat on the headline. 155,000 easily topped the 120,000 consensus and counted as a meaningful rebound from the prior month’s lackluster pace.

The data came with a raft of historical revisions. The three-month average for private hiring is now 142,000, respectable, but the slowest since September all the same.

Hiring was evenly distributed across firm sizes, with the smallest adding 42,000 and the largest 59,000. Notably, manufacturing added 21,000, at odds with the message from Tuesday’s poor read on ISM’s factory employment gauge.

On the services side, the financial sector and business services accounted for the bulk of the gain, adding 95,000 positions between them. Leisure and hospitality chipped in 17,000.

ADP’s “pay insights” series showed pay growth for so-called “switchers” decelerated to 6.5%, the slowest annual rate since February of 2021. For those who stayed in their position, pay growth was mostly steady at 4.6%.

All in all, this was an undeniably solid release and should provide a measure of respite for a nervous macro community. Of course, it was overshadowed Wednesday by the proximity of Donald Trump’s tariff announcements.

“Despite policy uncertainty and downbeat consumers, the bottom line is this: The March topline number was a good one for the economy and employers of all sizes, if not necessarily all sectors,” ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said.