US service sector gauge grows faster in March

[babylonsister]

US service sector gauge grows faster in March

By TALI ARBEL
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. service sector grew in March at its fastest pace in more than two years, suggesting the economic recovery is expanding from the nation's factories to its shops, restaurants, hospitals and other big sources of jobs.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group, said Monday its service index rose to 55.4 in March from 53 in February.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a reading of 54. Any reading above 50 signals expansion.

It is the strongest pace of growth since ISM revised how it measured the service sector in January 2008.

The service sector is important as it accounts for about 80 percent of U.S. jobs excluding farmworkers. It includes jobs in areas like health care, retail and financial services. The sector is highly dependent on consumer spending, which powers about 70 percent of the economy.

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Lost4words]

1. I wait before I start partying if you dont mind.

A trade groups purpose in life is to encourage trade. Nothing discourges trsde like a bad economy so they must push the slightest improvement as much as possable. SO, no real news here.

dont be a sucker

[dmallind]

2. So they somehow forgot this through most of 2009?

I mean it's not like the ISM survey showed positive growth during GDP shrinking. Or are they colluding with the government to make sure they match "reality"?

[Lost4words]

3. Lets talk in 1 year from now. If you are correct I will pay homage to you

if not you can pay homage to me.

[dmallind]

4. With what criteria?

The metric after all is improvement (as clearly stated in the article and as known by any ISM survey watchers). So are you saying the service sector will have NOT improved from a Feb 10 baseline by end of March 2011? Based on GDP since this is what is being predicted by proxy?

If that's the deal - and it should be since that's what the survey is intended to predict - I'll take that deal in a heartbeat. Now bearing in mind this is a monthly survey so to be "right" we need only look at next months' GDP, I'm actually taking some greater risk since I am predicting the improvement will be sustainable. But I'll take that risk.

If however as I suspect you will not accept improvement unless we have frictional unemployment and soaring per capita incomes at all demographic segments then no it's a rigged deal. That's not what the survey measures or what the results mean.

Full disclosure - I may not be alive in a year. About a 50-50 shot. But if not feel free to metaphorically dance on my grave or admit you were wrong to it.