Washington (awp/afp) – Growth in activity in services continued to slow in June in the United States, for the third month in a row, but less than expected, according to the barometer of the professional federation ISM published on Wednesday , which also shows a contraction in employment.
The index fell to 55.3%, down 0.6 percentage points from May. This is better than anticipated by analysts, who expected a much more marked slowdown: 54.2%.
Activity in services, the main sector of the American economy, continues to grow with an index remaining above 50%, but the people who responded to this survey observed that demand, although still sustained, was declining.
In addition, supply difficulties persisted in June, which was also marked by the rise in interest rates.
Also, some components of the index fell below the 50% threshold, signaling a contraction.
That measuring employment fell to 47.4% (-2.8 points), that measuring imports lost 6.5 points to 46.3% and that measuring stocks also went into the red at 47 .5% (-3.5 points).
Most of the other components are slowing down, such as new orders (-2 points to 55.6%), prices (-2 points to 80.1%) or export orders (-3.4% to 57.5 %).
“Growth continues – albeit more slowly – for the service sector,” survey chairman Anthony Nieves said in a statement.
“Logistics challenges, a tight labor pool, material shortages, inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine continue to negatively impact the service sector,” he said. he added.
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