The Institute for Supply Management said its services sector index rose as new orders and employment picked up. Another report showed pending home sales fell to a 7-year low.

In another report, worker productivity slowed in the summer while wage pressures increased.

Hotels, construction firms and retailers saw business shrink in October as slower spending and declining employment sent the service sector into contraction, a trade group reported.

The Institute for Supply Management said its non-manufacturing index came in at 50.2, marginally above the level of 50 that signals expansion, with the help of a slight rise in new orders.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of nonmanufacturing businesses was below the dividing line between growth and contraction for the second month in a row.

Service companies added jobs last month for the first time this year, activity slowed down at the nation’s service industries as inflation further squeezed businesses.

U.S. service industries suffered a slowdown in activity in April, but service companies also appeared to add jobs, the first time this year that their payrolls expanded, a survey showed.

U.S. service industries suffered a slowdown in activity in April, but service companies also appeared to add jobs, the first time this year that their payrolls expanded, a survey showed.

In The Harvard Business Review, a business professor writes about the four critical factors a service business must address to flourish.

In The Harvard Business Review, a business professor writes about the four critical factors a service business must address to flourish.