Gallup Job Creation Index Relatively Strong

American workers' reports of hiring activity at their place of employment remained relatively strong in October, with many more saying their employer was adding rather than subtracting jobs. The Job Creation Index (JCI), a measure of net hiring, was plus 32 for the month, the same as October 2015 and nearly matches the post-recession high of plus 33 in each of the past five months.

For nearly all of Gallup's JCI trend since August 2008, net hiring in the private sector has far outpaced government net hiring. But the latest poll shows the narrowest gap between net hiring in the two sectors since April 2009, with nongovernment hiring (plus 32) essentially tied with government hiring (plus 31). The private sector represents the majority of U.S. jobs. While both sectors have shown great gains in net hiring, the gains reported by government workers have climbed more steeply, which has gradually narrowed the gap between government and nongovernment net hiring.