Manufacturing Down But Not Out
Payrolls in the manufacturing sector finally contract, as the Fed continues to raise interest rates.
What do we have left for an economy?
It’s bad, but strangely resilient.
New Orders Down
The Census Bureau just released the Advance Report on Durable Goods.
New orders for manufactured durable goods is down, again.
It’s been negative for three of the last four months.
We’re getting a similar story from ISM…
PMI Grinds Lower
47.7% is the Manufacturing PMI for February.
PMI is the highly reliable Purchasing Managers’ Index from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).
And anything below 50% is bad.
They say this is, “the fourth month of slow contraction and continuation of a downward trend that began in June 2022.”
So, with the PMI at its lowest levels since May, 2022, the ISM reports…
- prices increasing,
- new orders declining, and
- employment in contraction.
Recruiter’s View
This is pretty much what you might expect in a pre-recession economy.
I have never understood why the government would spend us into inflation; and then destroy production, to solve what they caused.
People who can’t pay higher prices now, will find it impossible, once they’ve been laid off.
-TD