U.S. Job Creation Index Steady in November

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index registered +31 for November. This is similar to the record high of +32 recorded in each of the previous six months.

The +31 to +32 scores found since April represent the highest the index has been since Gallup began measuring employees' perceptions of job creation at their workplaces in 2008. The index bottomed out at its low of -5 in early 2009 amid the economic recession, meaning that at that point, more workers reported their company was reducing the size of its workforce by letting workers go than said it was expanding its workforce by hiring more workers. Since then, the index has slowly improved, reaching its new highs in 2015.

The results are based on interviews with 16,933 U.S. full- and part-time workers conducted Nov. 1-30 as part of Gallup Daily tracking. Gallup asks employed workers nationwide each day whether their employer is increasing, reducing or maintaining the size of its workforce. In November, 42% of workers said their employer was hiring workers and expanding the size of its workforce -- similar to the 43% in October. Meanwhile, 11% said their employer was letting people go and reducing the size of its workforce -- the same as in October. The difference between these two estimates produced the U.S. Job Creation Index of +31 for the month.

Nongovernment Hiring Remains Near High in November

Net hiring in the private sector, which employs the large majority of U.S. workers, was +32 for November, just under the seven-year high of +34 recorded in October.

Nongovernment hiring is generally higher than government hiring, which netted +25 in November -- also falling short of the high of +27 in October.

Net hiring was similar across regions in November, with the index registering +30 in the East and the South, +31 in the Midwest and +32 in the West. Regional Job Creation Index scores were more tightly clustered in November than in previous months this year. Midwestern workers generally have been most positive about job creation in their workplaces, while Easterners have been the least positive.

Bottom Line

Since April, U.S. employees' perceptions of hiring in their workplaces have been the most positive Gallup has measured since 2008. These positive reports of hiring -- along with lower unemployment figures, healthy economic growth as measured by GDP and lower gas prices -- are factors likely contributing to Gallup's positive holiday spending forecast this year.

These data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Nov. 1-30, 2015, on Gallup Daily tracking, with a random sample of 16,933 adults, aged 18 and older, who are employed full or part time living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national 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 60% cellphone respondents and 40% 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 the Gallup U.S. Daily works.