Modest growth in US service sector, continued evidence of slowdown in hiring and including job openings data

The ISM services index for November was 52.7, up from 51.8 in October and that was a touch above the estimate of 52.3 and vs 53.6 in September and 54.5 in August. The 6 month average is now 53.2.

New orders were unchanged at 55.5 while backlogs fell back below 50 at 49.1 from 50.9. Inventories rebounded by 5.9 pts after a 4.7 pt drop in October. Employment remained around 50, though up .5 pt to 50.7. Export orders, where only a few service businesses have them, was up 4.8 pts but after plunging by 14.9 pts in October.  Supplier deliveries were slightly below 50 while the prices paid was too at 58.3 vs 58.6.

Breadth improved as 15 of 18 industries saw growth while 3 saw a contraction. That compares with 12 saw gains in October and 5 reported a contraction. It’s important though to look under the hood too as the number of industries seeing a rise in new orders fell to the lowest since May while those that said ‘inventories are too high’ rose to the highest since April. And, the number of industries seeing a rise in ‘business activity’ fell to the lowest since May.