US service sector growth slows for 2nd straight month

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The U.S. services sector, where most Americans work, registered its sixth consecutive month of expansion in November. The Institute for Supply Management reported Thursday that its activity index declined slightly from October. While there is still expansion in service industries such as restaurants and bars, retail stores and delivery companies, it was the second consecutive month in which that growth slowed. Many restaurants, whose indoor capacities have been eliminated or reduced greatly, could be facing a make-or-break winter. On Wednesday, the U.S. recorded over 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in a single day according to new data, obliterating the record set last spring, while the number of Americans hospitalized with the virus eclipsed 100,000 for the first time.