WASHINGTON—Despite blizzards, ice storms and floods, U.S. manufacturing conditions improved significantly in February. The Institute for Supply Management found that new factory orders, deliveries and inventories improved during February to create an overall index of 53.2, up from 51.3 in January. Any index figure over 50 signals economic growth.
WASHINGTON—Factory employment jumped 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, more than compensating for losses earlier in the year. The sector’s resurgence in the traditionally strong manufacturing states of the Midwest and Southeast accounted for most of last quarter’s growth. At more than 12 million jobs nationwide, manufacturing employment is now the highest it has been since 2009.
LONDON—Manufacturing executives are more optimistic about economy than they were at this time last year, according to a PWC’s quarterly manufacturing barometer. Sixty-eight percent of executives are optimistic about the U.S. economy in 2014 and 47 percent are optimistic about the global economy.
WASHINGTON—Industrial production in the United States rose for a fifth month in December, capping the strongest quarter since 2010 and indicating manufacturing is helping propel the economy. Output at factories, mines and utilities climbed 0.3 percent after a revised 1 percent increase in November, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
WASHINGTON—With orders for transportation equipment showing a notable rebound, new orders for U.S. manufactured goods rose by 1.8 percent in November, slightly more than expected.
WASHINGTON—Manufacturing grew in December at the second-fastest pace in more than two years, fueled by a gain in orders that will help propel the U.S. economy in 2014.
WASHINGTON—U.S. manufacturing is expected to fare better than the overall economy, with anticipated growth of 3.1 percent in 2014 and 4.1 percent in 2015, according to the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation.
WASHINGTON—U.S. payrolls rose by 203,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to 7 percent, the lowest level in five years.
WASHINGTON—Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in November for the sixth consecutive month, reaching its highest level in 2.5 years, according to the latest data from the Institute for Supply Management. The institute’s Purchasing Managers Index registered 57.3 percent, up from October’s reading of 56.4 percent.
