{"id":47407,"date":"2026-09-07T00:23:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/09\/07\/service-sector-growth-remains-robust-employment-stalls\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T00:23:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:23:03","slug":"service-sector-growth-remains-robust-employment-stalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/09\/07\/service-sector-growth-remains-robust-employment-stalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Service sector growth remains robust, employment stalls"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"medium-10 medium-offset-1 columns article-body\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-epic-field=\"content\">\n<p>Growth in the services sector remained robust in August on stronger new business, although employment in the sector registered no increase for only the fourth time in five and a half years, a survey showed today.<\/p>\n<p>The AIB S&#038;P Global Services Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index inched up to 55.4 in August from 55.2 in July, remaining above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction by the clearest distance since November 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Strong growth in new business accelerated following a dip in activity earlier this year. While new export from abroad also rose, they did so at a more modest pace than in July.<\/p>\n<p>Sentiment among firms strengthened for the fifth successive month, with expectations for activity at the highest level in 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>Employment levels fell at the most marginal of rates following several months of rapid gains.<\/p>\n<p>Rising wage, fuel and transportation costs pushed cost inflation slightly higher, although it was well below the 40-month peak reached in April and May, and broadly in line with the long-run survey average.<\/p>\n<p>The rate of increase in prices charged also picked up and remains well above the long-run trend level.<\/p>\n<p>Growth was strongest among financial services companies for the first time since February, just ahead of those in the technology, media and telecoms sector. Tourism and leisure registered the first increase in activity for six months.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Growth in the services sector remained robust in August on stronger new business, although employment in the sector registered no increase for only the fourth time in five and a half years, a survey showed today. The AIB S&#038;P Global Services Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index inched up to 55.4 in August from 55.2 in July, remaining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}