Catenaa, Wednesday, September 23, 2026- US business activity index climbed to 58.4 in September, the highest since July 2021, as employment surged with demand for new orders.
S&P Global said on Wednesday that the flash US Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, rose to 58.4 from 56.0 in August.
The index says a reading above 50 indicates private-sector expansion.
S&P Global said that the PMI was consistent with the economy growing at around a 5% annualized rate.
It also noted a sharp rise in work backlogs and supply chain delays, “pointing to a lack of operating capacity which fed through to higher prices.”
According to Bloomberg, US employment surged at a rate not seen in over four years, while input prices grew at the fastest pace since 2022.
“Respondents primarily blamed higher fuel and transport costs, though a pickup in wages was also noted by many firms,” the report said.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that business is clearly booming now in both manufacturing and services.
However, he said this growth is being accompanied by some of the most severe supply chain bottlenecks seen in the near-two-decade survey history if the pandemic is excluded, with companies also reporting increasing problems finding suitable staff.
The survey showed that new orders in both services and manufacturing industries rose to 58.2, which is also the highest reading since March 2022, while incomplete orders, a key indicator of capacity utilization and future business growth, increased to the highest level since May 2022.
S&P Global also said that reports of problems finding suitable staff are increasing, though companies across manufacturing and services sectors boosted hiring to tackle the order backlog.
Williamson said that while this accumulation of uncompleted orders bodes well for the further expansion of output and capacity in the coming months, it also indicates that companies are developing more pricing power, and hence is a worry for the inflation outlook.
The latest data from S&P Global suggest that strong demand is outweighing the jump in energy costs and supply chain snarls brought on by the Iran war.
Strong consumer spending, AI-fueled business investment and defense outlays have bolstered US businesses this year.
Williamson said that outside the post-pandemic re-opening of the economy, September’s business activity improvement “is the greatest recorded since early 2015.”
