US companies increased payrolls in April by the most in nine months, highlighting a resilient labor market even as the economy cools. Private payrolls rose 296,000 last month following a revised 142,000 increase in March, according to figures published Wednesday by ADP Research Institute in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The figure exceeded all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists and was nearly double the median projection. While the pace of job growth accelerated last month, wages cooled. For those who changed jobs, the median increase in annual pay was 13.2%, down from 14.2% in the prior ... (full story)