Gallup US Job Creating Index hits its highest level in more than six years.

Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index for July climbed to its highest level in more than six years, hitting plus 28, up from June's plus 27 and up from plus 21 a year ago. The index has been trending upward most of the year. In July, 41 percent of workers reported that their employer is hiring and expanding the size of its workforce, while 13 percent said their employer is letting workers go and reducing the size of its workforce, resulting in the plus 28 net hiring score.

Gallup has been tracking net hiring since January 2008. After tumbling that year amid the deepening recession and 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, Gallup 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 plus 30 in July among nongovernment workers. That represents 82 percent of all workers Gallup polled in July at plus 17 among government workers and 16 percent 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 plus 4 to plus 17, whereas the index among private-sector workers rose by only six points, from plus 24 to plus 30.

The progress seen this year in job creation was punctuated in July as the Gallup Job Creation Index averaged a new high in the more than six years of tracking this metric. The plus 28 index score still barely exceeds the plus 26 Gallup 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.