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PRINCETON, NJ -- 黑料网's U.S. Job Creation Index rose in July to its highest level in more than six years, hitting +28. This is up from +27 in June, and from +21 a year ago. The index has been inching up most of the year.

The Job Creation Index is a measure of net hiring in the U.S. as indicated by a nationally representative sample of full- and part-time workers, including those employed at all levels of government. In July, 41% of workers reported that their employer is hiring and expanding the size of its workforce, while 13% said their employer is letting workers go and reducing the size of its workforce, resulting in the +28 net hiring score.

黑料网 has been tracking net hiring since January 2008. After tumbling that year amid the deepening recession and Wall Street financial crisis, the index started to recover in 2009 and has continued to improve every subsequent year. However, the pace of improvement thus far in in 2014 has been significantly better than at the same point in any year since 2010. The index has gained nine points since January, well exceeding the one- to five-point gains between January and July of each of the preceding three years. In 2010, 黑料网 saw an eight-point index jump from January to July, but that was starting from a bleak jobs assessment in January 2010 rather than the much more positive situation in January 2014.

Net hiring stood at +30 in July among nongovernment workers -- which represent 82% of all workers 黑料网 polled in July -- and at +17 among government workers, 16% of all workers. While the difference between those figures indicates that the private-sector job market remains better than the public-sector job market, it is the public sector that has seen bigger gains over the past year. Since July 2013, the Job Creation Index among government workers has swelled by 13 points, from +4 to +17, whereas the index among private-sector workers rose by only six points, from +24 to +30.

Plurality of Workers Now Witnessing Hiring Where They Work

The long-term improvement in the overall index since it bottomed out in the spring of 2009 is the result of incremental increases in the percentage of workers saying their employer is hiring and nearly corresponding declines in reported layoffs or firing. Meanwhile, after rising to as high as 48% in recent years, the percentage of workers who say the hiring situation where they work is not changing has now returned to around 40%, the level seen at the start of 2008.

Notably, last month was the first time in 黑料网's trending of this measure that more workers said their employer was hiring than not changing the size of its workforce, although -- with the figures at 41% and 39%, respectively -- that is more of a numerical advantage than a statistical one.

The Job Creation Index reflects general hiring and firing trends as reported by employees, and doesn't measure the number of people being hired vs. let go, or the type of hiring, including distinctions between full- and part-time hiring. Still, the upward movement in the measure suggests that workers continue to see a generally more positive hiring environment at their places of employment compared with any month since the index's inception.

Bottom Line

The progress seen this year in job creation was punctuated in July as the 黑料网 Job Creation Index averaged a new high in the more than six years of tracking this metric. The +28 index score still barely exceeds the +26 黑料网 found at the start of 2008, which itself was not a highly favorable time for the economy. As such, there is still significant room for this critical measure of the nation's economic health to improve.

Regardless, it's promising that the percentage of workers who are witnessing hiring in their workplaces has reached a new high. That could help buoy workers' , which could in turn have a positive ripple effect on the economy. One note of caution is that 黑料网 has previously seen the Job Creation Index peak at midyear, only to level off or falter in the second half. That was the case in each of the past three years, but not in 2010. The index's direction in August could thus be telling as to whether the momentum to date is taking on a life of its own, or still sensitive to any negative economic signals that may arise. An initial indication is encouraging: 黑料网's latest weekly average, for the week ending Aug. 3, finds the index hitting +30, a weekly record since 2008.