Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Job growth painfully slow

Each month the Institute for Supply Management releases a couple of closely-monitored surveys of both manufacturing and services.  The surveys measure many different facets of the economy, including job growth or the lack thereof.

With the September labor report out of Friday, the ISM surveys provide a glimpse as to what may happen when the report is released.

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Last month employers appeared to add staff at the nation’s manufacturers, though the pace slowed.  The service sector, which makes up the biggest slice of economic activity, provided few new jobs, according to the index. 

A reading of 50 suggests neither an increase nor a decrease in employment.

The ISM employment indices cannot be used to conclusively predict what will happen when the labor reports hits on Friday.

But it does paint a broad picture of what’s going on among employers and reflects the trouble that the economy is having creating a sizable number of new jobs.

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