U.S. Service Sector Grows for 2nd Straight Month

The U.S. service sector, which makes up about 80 percent of all U.S. jobs, showed growth for a second straight month in February, according to the Institute of Supply Management.

The ISM’s index registered a 53 February, which was up from 50.5 in January and is the highest since January 2008. Anything over a 50 in the ISM index constituted growth in the sector.

While that is certainly positive news, the concern remains that the non-manufacturing sector is still shedding jobs.The 48.6 registered by ISM’s sub-index for employment was four percentage points better than in January, but it’s still down on a month over month basis.