Economics
Service Companies Outpace Factories, Sustaining U.S. Economy
- Eleven of 18 non-manufacturing industries show growth
- Gap between services, factory indexes largest since 2001
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American service companies continued to outperform their manufacturing counterparts in December as orders and employment picked up, indicating the world’s largest economy will keep expanding this year.
The for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index, which covers almost 90 percent of the economy, came in at 55.3 last month, with readings greater than 50 signaling growth. While the level is down from November’s 55.9 and the weakest since April 2014, the drop was caused by a plunge in the deliveries component that indicates suppliers had fewer order backlogs to process.