The State of Manufacturing
Manufacturing is a dynamic and changing industry. In an effort to analyze the current state of the manufacturing industry and look forward to emerging trends, several manufacturing indicators are listed below. These indicators were chosen to point to different aspects of manufacturing in order to provide a broad-based view of the industry as a whole. The indicators are updated as soon new data becomes available. Links to the sources of these indicators are provided when available.
Contact: Christopher Carbone
Purchasing Managers Index
The PMI measures five factors in business: new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier delivers, and employment conditions. Each of these five factors are adjusted and weighed according to time of year and other events.
http://www.ism.ws/ISMReport/MfgROB.cfm
New Orders For Manufactured Goods
Estimates of new orders serve as an indicator of future production commitments and represent the current shipments (sales) value of new orders received during the month, net of cancellations.
http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/m3/index.html
Shipments of Manufactured Goods
The value of shipments measures the value of goods delivered during the month by domestic manufacturers. This serves as an indicator of current conditions in manufacturing.
http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/m3/index.html
Average Hourly Earnings of Manufacturing Production Workers, Constant Dollars
Average hourly earnings of manufacturing production workers (or real earnings) show earnings in constant dollars. Real earnings help give a better picture of how earnings of manufacturing workers are increasing or decreasing relative to prices.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/realer.t02.htm
Productivity
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.t03.htm
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes indexes of labor productivity, multifactor productivity, and related measures for broad economic sectors and manufacturing industries.
Indexes of labor productivity show changes in the ratio of output to hours of labor input. These measures are used in economic analysis, public and private policymaking, and forecasting and analysis of prices, wages, and technological change. However, labor productivity measures should not be interpreted as presenting the contribution of labor to production. Rather, changes over time in the output or labor input may reflect the influence of other factors including variations in the characteristics and efforts of the work-force, changes in the managerial skill, changes in the organization of production, changes in the allocation of resources between sectors, the direct and indirect effects of research and development, and new technology.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/Current/default.htm
The Federal Reserve's monthly index of industrial production and the related capacity indexes and capacity utilization rates cover manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities. The industrial sector, together with construction, accounts for the bulk of the variation in national output over the course of the business cycle. The industrial detail provided by these measures helps illuminate structural developments in the economy.
The production index measures real output and is expressed as a percentage of real output in a base year, currently 2002. The capacity index, which is an estimate of sustainable potential output, is also expressed as a percentage of actual output in 2002. The production indexes are computed as Fisher indexes since 1972; the weights are based on annual estimates of value added. The rate of capacity utilization equals the seasonally adjusted output index expressed as a percentage of the related capacity index.
Job Openings
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on a monthly basis releases job openings data. Job openings include only those jobs still open on the last business day of the month. Included are full-time, part-time, permanent, short-term, and seasonal openings. Active recruiting means that the establishment is taking steps to fill a position by advertising in newspapers or on the Internet, posting help-wanted signs, accepting applications,
or using other similar methods.
Federal Reserve Beige Book
http://www.federalreserve.gov/FOMC/BeigeBook/2007/
Commonly known as the Beige Book, this report is published eight times per year. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The Beige Book summarizes this information by District and sector. An overall summary of the twelve district reports is prepared on a rotating basis by a designated Federal Reserve Bank.
