Story Highlights
- Third month in a row at record high
- Government hiring down slightly
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index maintained its record high of +32 in July for the third month in a row. This score is based on 43% of workers saying their employer is hiring workers and expanding the size of its workforce. It also includes 11% who say their employer is letting workers go and reducing the size of its workforce. Both of these are the same as in June.
Gallup began tracking job creation in January 2008 as the Great Recession took hold in the U.S. economy, and the index plummeted after the 2008 financial crisis. After hitting a record low of -5 in early 2009, it remained negative or close to zero for the rest of that year. Gradually, the index improved, eventually reaching a high of +30 in September 2014. After hovering between +27 and +29 from October 2014 to March 2015, the index climbed two points in April and another point in May to reach the high that it has sustained over the last two months.
The index is based on interviews with 17,103 full- and part-time workers in the U.S., conducted July 1-31 on Gallup Daily tracking. Gallup asks employed workers nationwide each day whether their employer is increasing, reducing or maintaining the size of its workforce. Forty percent currently report no change in the number of employees at their place of work. The question does not specifically ask whether the jobs a company is creating or removing are full or part time.
Government Hiring Down Slightly
Net hiring in the private sector ticked up a point from the previous month -- from +32 in June to +33 in July, based on 43% of private-sector workers saying their employer is hiring and 10% saying their employer is letting workers go. Meanwhile, government hiring came down a few points. In both May and June, government workers reported net hiring of +25, but last month this dipped to +22, as 39% of government workers reported a net gain and 17% a net loss of jobs at their place of employment.
Nongovernment workers make up the large majority of U.S. employees, so the smaller increase in net hiring among private-sector employees last month offset the larger decrease among government employees.
Bottom Line
The Job Creation Index remains a bright spot among Gallup's economic indicators that measure Americans' own perspectives because it is the only one that has maintained its gains from the past year. Though Americans are not spending more and continue to view the economy negatively, American workers still have a stronger impression of hiring within their own places of employment than they have had at any point since 2008.
From a long-term view, all of Gallup's economic measures have seen major gains since the global financial crisis. But the Job Creation Index remains the sturdiest.
Americans have recently noted that lower unemployment is one of the more positive aspects of the current economy, and this bright spot is critical if economic confidence is ever to turn positive again.
These data are available in Gallup Analytics.
Survey Methods
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted July 1-31, 2015, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 17,103 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, who are employed full or part time. For results based on the total sample of employed adults, the margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
Learn more about how Gallup Daily tracking works.
