Private-sector employment continued to rise at a moderate pace in September, according to this morning’s ADP Employment Report. Last month’s 213,000 increase in jobs (seasonally adjusted) was slightly higher than the consensus forecast, but generally in line with the pace of growth in recent months. In fact, once you consider the year-over-year trend—payrolls advanced 2.2% last month vs. the year-earlier level—today’s release looks a lot like the August report. In other words, the economy continues to create jobs at a steady rate in the low-2% range.

Today’s numbers don’t offer much room for arguing that economic growth is accelerating, although there’s still no sign of trouble either in terms of looking at the data from a business cycle perspective. The recent persistence of adding 200,000 jobs a month, give or take, is encouraging in the sense that this stable rate of improvement points to ongoing growth for the US economy. But the figures still don’t offer much support for thinking that the macro trend is shifting into a higher gear, at least by the standard via today’s numbers. The good news is that the recovery rolls on. It’s not particularly impressive, but at least the odds look good for expecting that the moderate rate of expansion appears to be in no danger of stumbling in the near term.