Job creation in the U.S. remained stagnant through November, a trend that has persisted since May, according to Gallup's Job Creation Index.

Monday’s update of the national Index remained at +14, but is up three percentage points from a year ago. Last week the federal government reported a drop in unemployment to 8.6 percent.

“For the long term this means we aren’t producing enough jobs to keep up with the unemployment rate,” said CATO Institute senior fellow Mike Tanner. “A lot of hiring recently has been seasonal hiring, not permanent jobs, so we may see an uptick coming in December and January.”

According to Gallup, hiring is up while firing is down - 32 percent of workers nationwide say their employers are hiring and 18 percent are letting workers go.

Market conditions have remained flat in all U.S. regions, with the best conditions in the Midwest at a Job Creation Index of +17. The Index sits at +12 in the East, with 32 percent of employers hiring and 20 percent cutting back.

“While jobs growth might not be at the rate we’d like to see, the trend since 2010 is going up, so I’m positive,” said Abhimanyu Rana, business student at Baruch College in New York.

National results for November are based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews with 16,564 employees.