The American service sector limit its decline in February

The ISM services index was established last month to 49.3, compared with 44.6 in January. A figure which is much higher than the expectations of analysts. Orders for durable goods, however declined by 5.1% in January.

A better than expected ISM
A better than expected ISM
Which is good news if the services activity continued to shrink in the United States, the slowdown was less than before. According to figures released Wednesday by the national group of purchasing managers sector enterprises (ISM), the composite index of activity in the services sector in the United States stood at 49.3 in February to 44, 6 in January.

Significantly better than in January, the figure also exceeded the expectations of economists, who tablaient index to 47.5. A level below 50 of the ISM index reflects a contraction in activity.

In addition, new orders received by American manufacturers fell 2.5% in January, as expected by the market, experiencing their first decline since August, official statistics show published Wednesday.

Orders for durable goods, for their part, accuse a decline of 5.1% in January after two consecutive months of increase, said the Commerce Department. It was reported last week in the first estimate of a 5.3% decline in orders for durable goods.

Excluding the transportation sector, whose business is particularly volatile, orders to the industry saw their decline reduced to 0.4%.

Orders excluding defense and aerospace, considered as the most representative of the evolution of business investment, fell 1.5% in January, compared to -1.4% reported in the first estimate.

Regarding employment, the American private sector has eliminated 23,000 jobs last month, according to a monthly survey conducted by the firm Business Service ADP Employer Services. This figure is well below expectations. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting, in fact creations of 20,000 posts.

To make matters worse, ADP stresses that the figure for February is the worst recorded since April 2003. And again, the firm has revised down the number of jobs created in January, to 119,000 from 130,000 originally announced.

The investigation ADP is usually issued two days before the official statistics of the labour market. For February, economists expect an average of about 25,000 new jobs being created non-agricultural after the 17,000 cuts announced in January.

Another statistic on the American economy: the growth of non-farm productivity in the fourth quarter was revised up slightly like that the unit cost of labor. Productivity grew by 1.9% (+1.8% in the first estimate), while economists surveyed by Reuters anticipated a growth of 1.8%. In the third quarter, productivity had risen by 6.3%.

The unit cost of labor increased by 2.6%, while economists tablaient on an increase of 2.1% in line with the first estimate.