Gallup's Job Creation Index Slipped In October

Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index slipped back to plus 27 for the month of October, down from the six-year high of plus 30 in September. Despite the decrease, the index remains on the high end of what Gallup has recorded since 2008.

Gallup's Job Creation Index is a measure of net hiring activity in the U.S., with the October average based on a nationally representative sample of more than 17,000 full- and part-time workers. October's plus 27 index score is based on 40 percent of employees saying their employer is hiring workers and expanding the size of its workforce -- a small dip from September -- and 13 percent saying their employer is letting workers go and reducing the size of its workforce. Forty-one percent reported no changes in staffing, an increase from 39 percent in September.

Through September, the Job Creation Index this year had shown improvement on a month-to-month basis in how Americans perceive job creation in their own places of employment. While the percentage who said their employers were letting people go declined slightly over the year, the percentage saying their employers were hiring ticked upward. The proportion who saw no change in their employer's hiring conditions waned slightly in the first half of 2014 and has now ticked up again in October.