by Calculated Risk on 12/03/2008 10:00:00 AM

From the Institute for Supply Management: November 2008 Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®

"The NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) registered 37.3 percent in November, 7.1 percentage points lower than the 44.4 percent registered in October, indicating contraction in the non-manufacturing sector for the second consecutive month. The Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index decreased 11.2 percentage points to 33 percent. The New Orders Index decreased 8.6 percentage points to 35.4 percent, and the Employment Index decreased 10.2 percentage points to 31.3 percent. These are the lowest levels for each of these indexes since they were first reported in 1997."

There is much more in the press release, but basically the service economy is very weak. Here is a key sentence:

Respondents' comments reflect concern about the time line for the economy to stabilize and the impact it is having on discretionary spending and employment.

Discretionary spending always gets hit hard when households and businesses are uncertain about the future. And this is more evidence of a very weak employment report for November.