A measure of the U.S. manufacturing secotor released Thursday is just one in a raft of economic reports released this week that showed 2018 began with a similar pace to that seen when 2017 wrapped up.
According to the Institute for Supply Management on Thursday, growth in the manufacturing sector slowed just a bit in January as its measure registered 59.1%. That's a decrease of 0.2 of a percentage point from the seasonally adjusted December reading of 59.3%.
Despite the decline, the January figure is still above the 57.4% average reading for 2017. A reading over 50% indicates expansion while below 50% signals contraction.
Also, the New Orders Index registered 65.4%, a decrease of 2 percentage points from the seasonally adjusted December reading. And the Production Index registered 64.5%, a 0.7 of a percentage point decrease from the month before.
Comments from this survey of the nation's purchasing executives reflect expanding business conditions, with new orders and production maintaining high levels of expansion, employment expanding at a slower rate, order backlogs expanding at a faster rate, and export orders and imports continuing to grow faster in January. Of the 18 manufacturing industries surveyed, 14 of them reported growth.
The one downside in the report, as analysts at Econoday noted, is employment in manufacturing.
“Employment is the weak link in the January report, slowing nearly 4 points to what however is still 54.2% to indicate a solid monthly net increase in the sample's staffing,” Econoday said. “This report has been sending loud signals of sharp acceleration for the last year, and acceleration is now beginning to take hold in government data, at least in some of the data most notably factory orders and shipments. If the factory sector does indeed begin to overheat, we can look back at this report…as offering the first signals.”
A separate report on
