US ISM Services PMI: 2026 Schedule, Dates and What to Expect

The US ISM Services PMI is a monthly survey of purchasing and supply executives at American services companies, published by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), a professional body based in Tempe, Arizona. It is released on the third business day of each month at 10:00 am ET (3:00 pm London) and measures whether activity in the services side of the world’s largest economy, which covers roughly two-thirds of US output, is expanding or contracting. The next release is on Thursday, September 3, 2026 at 10:00 am ET (3:00 pm London), covering August 2026. Full schedule and background: US ISM Services PMI dates. This page carries an ICS and Google Calendar feed, so you can add every release date on this schedule to your own calendar in one step.

PMI stands for purchasing managers’ index. It is a diffusion index: readings above 50 mean more firms report improvement than deterioration, and readings below 50 mean the opposite. Because the survey is collected during the month it describes and published only days after it ends, it reaches investors well before official data such as GDP, which is why it moves bond yields, the dollar and equity futures within seconds of release.

2026 and 2027 schedule

The table below lists every ISM Services PMI release date currently scheduled by ISM. Each report covers the previous calendar month, so the September 3, 2026 release reports August 2026 activity. All times are 10:00 am ET, which is 3:00 pm in London for both the EDT and EST periods, because the UK and the US shift their clocks within a few weeks of each other.

Dates follow ISM’s standing rule of publishing the services report on the third business day of the month. The manufacturing equivalent, the ISM Manufacturing PMI, comes out on the first business day, so the two arrive within the same week and are usually read together.

What is the ISM Services PMI?

The ISM Services PMI, formally the ISM Services Report On Business, is built from a monthly questionnaire sent to senior purchasing and supply managers across more than a dozen services industries, from healthcare and finance to retail trade, transport, construction and public administration. Respondents are not asked for numbers. They are asked whether each part of their business was better, the same or worse than the month before.

ISM converts those answers into indexes. The headline Services PMI is an equally weighted composite of four of them: Business Activity, New Orders, Employment and Supplier Deliveries. A reading above 50 signals expansion in the services economy. ISM also notes that a Services PMI above 48.1 over time is generally consistent with an expanding overall economy, so a print in the high 40s does not automatically mean recession.

Alongside the headline number, the report publishes sub-indexes that markets often care about more than the composite itself. The Prices Paid index is watched as an early read on services inflation, the stickiest part of the inflation basket in most advanced economies. The Employment index is read as a clue to the monthly US jobs report, since services firms account for the large majority of American payrolls. New Orders is treated as the forward-looking component, because today’s orders become next quarter’s activity.

The survey matters far beyond the United States. Global equity indices, corporate bond spreads and emerging market currencies all take direction from US growth expectations, so a surprise in this release is felt in London, Frankfurt and Tokyo as quickly as on Wall Street.

How is it calculated?

Each sub-index is a diffusion index calculated as the percentage of respondents reporting an improvement plus half the percentage reporting no change. That construction means 50 is the neutral line and the distance from 50 indicates breadth, not size: a reading of 56 tells you that improvement was widespread, not that activity grew 6%.

Business Activity, New Orders and Employment are seasonally adjusted, so that predictable patterns such as holiday hiring or summer travel do not distort the signal. Supplier Deliveries is not seasonally adjusted and is inverted in interpretation: slower deliveries push the index up, because slowing supply chains normally accompany strong demand. Seasonal adjustment factors are reviewed annually, which can revise recent history slightly.

ISM does not routinely revise individual monthly readings once published, unlike government statistics agencies. The main source of change is the annual seasonal factor update, which is why a figure quoted in a news story at the time can differ marginally from the same month in a later data series. The committee behind the report is the ISM Services Business Survey Committee, chaired since 2025 by Steve Miller, whose commentary accompanies each release and is quoted widely by newswires.

Sample size is a genuine caveat. The panel is diversified by industry using each sector’s contribution to GDP, but it is a survey of sentiment among a few hundred purchasing managers, not a census. Month-to-month wobbles of a point or more are normal, which is why analysts often compare the print with its 12-month moving average rather than only the previous month. Anecdotal comments from respondents, printed verbatim in the report, are frequently the most quoted part of the release.

What time is it released and where?

Release time is 10:00 am ET, which is 3:00 pm in London, 4:00 pm in Frankfurt and Paris, 11:00 pm in Tokyo and 7:00 am at ISM’s own headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, which stays on Mountain Standard Time all year. The timing is unusual for a US indicator: most major American data lands at 8:30 am ET before the New York equity open, while ISM arrives 30 minutes after the opening bell, so the reaction is visible in cash equities immediately rather than only in futures.

The report is published on the ISM website under the ISM Report On Business section and distributed simultaneously by press release through PR Newswire, then carried by Reuters, Bloomberg, Dow Jones and other newswires. There is no pre-release lock-up for journalists in the way there is for some government statistics, and the headline indexes are free to read. The full detail, including historical index series, is available to ISM subscribers.

If a US public holiday falls early in the month, the third business day shifts later, which is why the schedule above shows dates ranging from the 3rd to the 5th of the month rather than a fixed calendar day.

Historical data

The table shows headline Services PMI readings as first published, with the release date on which each appeared. Readings for the months not shown are available in the ISM Report On Business archive.

Source: Institute for Supply Management, ISM Services Report On Business. The July 2026 reading of 54.1 was the 25th consecutive month above 50, and it sat 0.7 percentage point above its 12-month moving average of 53.4, according to ISM.

The recent record shows why this series is worth watching rather than dismissing as noise. In May 2025 the index dipped to 49.9, its first sub-50 reading since June 2024, then recovered through the following year and reached 56.1 in February 2026, described by ISM as the highest since July 2022. The composite has been more stable in 2026 than the sub-indexes beneath it: the Employment index fell to 47.4 in July 2026 from 51.2 in June, while Business Activity jumped to 59.1 from 55.4 in the same month.

How do markets react?

The first move usually comes in the US Treasury market. A stronger than expected headline, and especially a high Prices Paid reading, tends to lift short-dated Treasury yields because traders reduce the odds of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. A basis point, or bp, is one hundredth of a percentage point, and yields on the two-year Treasury note can move 3bp to 8bp in the minutes after a large surprise. Weak prints do the reverse, pushing yields down and pulling forward expected rate cuts.

The dollar generally follows yields. Higher US yields make dollar deposits more attractive relative to sterling, the euro and the yen, so a hot ISM services print typically strengthens the dollar and weakens the pound and euro against it. That matters for UK and European travellers, importers and anyone holding US assets in a home currency other than the dollar.

Equities are more ambiguous. A strong reading is good for corporate revenues but bad for the discount rate applied to future profits, so the response depends on which worry dominates at the time. In periods when investors fear recession, a firm ISM services number tends to lift cyclical shares such as banks, airlines and industrials. In periods when inflation is the dominant fear, the same number can push equities lower because it implies tighter policy for longer.

Sub-index detail can override the headline. The July 2026 report is a clean example: the headline rose slightly to 54.1 from 54.0, but came in below the consensus of 54.5 tracked by market commentary, with Prices Paid at 70.3 and Employment at 47.4. Analysts noted that the very strong Business Activity reading of 59.1 was flattered by one-off events, and cautioned that August was likely to cool. The lesson for readers is to look at the release as a whole rather than only the number in the headline.

Because ISM arrives after the New York open and only three business days into the month, it also sets the tone for the rest of the data calendar. Traders use the Employment index to fine-tune expectations for the payrolls report later in the same week or the following one, and the Prices Paid index to frame the next US CPI report.

What It Means for Your Money

The ISM Services PMI does not change your mortgage rate on its own, but it feeds the expectations that set borrowing costs. Repeated strong readings alongside high services prices make central banks slower to cut interest rates, which keeps fixed mortgage rates and new loan rates higher for longer, in the US directly and in the UK and euro area indirectly through global bond yields. Persistent weakness has the opposite effect and usually shows up in cheaper fixed-rate deals within weeks.

Savers face the mirror image. When the data supports higher-for-longer rates, easy-access and fixed-term savings rates stay generous. When services activity slows and rate cuts come into view, banks trim savings rates quickly, so a run of soft ISM prints is a reasonable prompt to consider locking in a fixed-term rate.

For jobs, the Employment sub-index is the part to watch. Services firms employ the majority of workers in the US, UK and euro area, so a sustained run below 50 signals slower hiring, fewer vacancies and weaker pay growth ahead. One month below 50 is not a trend, however: this index is volatile and has flipped either side of the line repeatedly in recent years.

For prices, the Prices Paid index is an early warning about what businesses are paying for inputs. When it runs in the high 60s or 70s, some of that cost tends to reach consumers through insurance premiums, rents, travel fares, restaurant bills and other service charges over the following months.

For pensions and investments, the practical point is that a single monthly survey should not drive portfolio decisions. It matters as part of a pattern. If you hold a global equity or bond fund, US growth data affects your valuation whether or not you own American shares directly. If you hold unhedged US assets from the UK or Europe, the currency reaction to this release moves your returns as much as the share price does.

For the pound, dollar and euro, the takeaway is simple: strong US services data usually means a stronger dollar and a weaker pound and euro against it, which raises the cost of dollar-priced holidays, imports and fuel for non-US households.

Related economic events

• US CPI Report: the official monthly inflation reading, the natural follow-up to the ISM Prices Paid index.
• US Jobs Report: monthly non-farm payrolls and the unemployment rate, cross-checked against the ISM Employment index.
• US GDP Report: the quarterly output figure that ISM’s diffusion indexes attempt to anticipate.
• US PCE Report: the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, including its closely watched services components.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the next ISM Services PMI released?

The next release is Thursday, September 3, 2026 at 10:00 am ET (3:00 pm London), covering August 2026 activity. The following release is October 5, 2026.

What time is the ISM Services PMI published?

Always 10:00 am ET, which is 3:00 pm in London, 4:00 pm in Frankfurt and 11:00 pm in Tokyo. Unlike most US data, it lands after the New York equity market has opened.

How often is it published?

Monthly, on the third business day of the month, covering the previous calendar month. The ISM Manufacturing PMI is published on the first business day of the month.

Where can I find the official release?

On the Institute for Supply Management website in the ISM Report On Business section, and simultaneously by press release through PR Newswire. Headline indexes and respondent comments are free to read.

How does the ISM Services PMI affect interest rates?

It is not a policy decision, but it shapes expectations. Strong activity and high Prices Paid readings make Federal Reserve rate cuts less likely in the near term, lifting bond yields and borrowing costs, while weak readings pull expected cuts forward.

What is the consensus forecast for the next release?

A consensus forecast for August 2026 has not yet been published in the sources reviewed here. Prediction market pricing on Polymarket has clustered around a reading near 54, and prediction markets are not a substitute for an economists’ survey.