US Private Sector Expands at Fastest Pace in Over 5 Years

2026-09-23 13:49 By Joana Taborda 1 min. read

The S&P Global US Flash Composite PMI rose to 58.4 in September 2026 from 56 in August, pointing to the strongest expansion in private-sector activity since July 2021 and marking a fourth consecutive month of accelerating growth.

The gains were driven by the service sector (58.7 vs 56.5), which reported the steepest rise in output for over five years, while manufacturing also accelerated (56.7 vs 53.1).

New order inflows gathered pace, buoyed principally by the domestic market.

Companies’ backlogs of uncompleted orders rose at the sharpest rate since May 2022, which encouraged firms to take on more staff and at a rate not seen since June 2022.

However, price pressures intensified, with input costs rising the most since October 2022 mainly due to higher fuel and transport costs though wage pressures were also noted to have picked up in many cases.

Selling price inflation also went up while business output expectations for the year ahead were unchanged.



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US Private Sector Expands at Fastest Pace in Over 5 Years
The S&P Global US Flash Composite PMI rose to 58.4 in September 2026 from 56 in August, pointing to the strongest expansion in private-sector activity since July 2021 and marking a fourth consecutive month of accelerating growth. The gains were driven by the service sector (58.7 vs 56.5), which reported the steepest rise in output for over five years, while manufacturing also accelerated (56.7 vs 53.1). New order inflows gathered pace, buoyed principally by the domestic market. Companies’ backlogs of uncompleted orders rose at the sharpest rate since May 2022, which encouraged firms to take on more staff and at a rate not seen since June 2022. However, price pressures intensified, with input costs rising the most since October 2022 mainly due to higher fuel and transport costs though wage pressures were also noted to have picked up in many cases. Selling price inflation also went up while business output expectations for the year ahead were unchanged.
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