U.S. service providers experienced a robust expansion of business activity in November, helped by the fastest rise in new work for one year. Greater workloads and resilient business confidence led to a further upturn in the pace of job creation from the three-and-a-half year low recorded in September. Meanwhile, input cost inflation eased slightly during November, which contributed to the slowest rise in average prices charged by service sector companies since April.

The seasonally adjusted final Markit U.S. Services Business Activity Index registered 54.6 in November, to remain above the 50.0 no-change value for the ninth consecutive month. Although the latest reading was fractionally lower than in October (54.8), the rate of growth remained stronger than at any time in the first half of 2016. Survey respondents noted that improved client confidence and a favourable domestic economic backdrop had helped to boost business activity in November.