China's services growth loses a little steam, October PMI at 50.8

China's services sector is still growing — it's just doing it with less oomph. The RatingDog China General Services Business Activity Index landed at 50.8 in October, S&P Global said Wednesday, easing off September's 51.6 while holding above the 50 line that separates expansion from contraction.

The broader picture cooled too. The Composite PMI, which folds services and manufacturing together, dipped to 52 from 52.4 the month before.

Hiring stayed a bright spot. Yao Yu, founder at RatingDog, said services employment grew for a sixth straight month, and the pace actually picked up from September as firms brought on extra full- and part-time staff to handle heavier workloads.

Those bigger teams — plus AI-enabled efficiencies — helped service providers work down their pile of outstanding business for the first time in a year, though Yao described the decline as marginal.

So the read is a services engine that's still running, still adding jobs, and still clearing backlogs, even as the headline number takes a breather from September's pace.