The eurozone economy boom is gathering pace with hiring of new employees reaching a 17-year high in November.

So strong is the demand for goods and services that back-logs of uncompleted work have reached levels not seen for a decade.

These findings come from the latest IHS Markit composite purchasing managers index (PMI), a useful indicator of economic health, in which any score above 50 indicates growth. The score for the eurozone was 57.5, the highest seen since April 2011.

For several months manufacturing had appeared to lag behind the vast majority of the economic up-turn across the eurozone, but that picture has changed. Service businesses are starting to expand at a strong rate too.

The score of 56.2 for activity in the services sector is a six month-high, compared to a score of 60.8 for output in manufacturing, which was at a stonking 87 month high.

Being able to keep up with the demand in the economy has meant businesses are expanding their headcounts at levels not seen for 17 years. Factories hired a record number of new workers, and service businesses' payrolls rose at their steepest rate for a decade.