The August 2013 Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows a 0.4% increase in industrial production. Manufacturing alone increased 0.7% for the month, but July manufacturing factory output was revised down to a -0.4% monthly change. Utilities fell again for the 5th month in a row and August shows a -1.5% decline, while mines increased 0.3%.
The BLS unemployment report shows total nonfarm payroll jobs gained were 169,000 for August 2013, with private payrolls adding 152,000 jobs. Government jobs increased by 17,000. Probably the worse news of this report is July was revised down by 58,000 jobs to show only a 104,000 payroll gain and June was also revised down by 16,000 to 172,000 jobs added for that month.
The August ISM Manufacturing Survey shows PMI increased 0.3 percentage points to 55.7%. Seems the survey results held the July blow out increase and PMI is now at the highest level for the year. New orders showed the most promise, with a 4.9 percentage point increase from last month, although the production index declined.
The July 2013 Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows no change in industrial production. Manufacturing alone declined -0.1% for the month. Utilities dropped -2.1% and is the 4th monthly decline in a row. The G.17 industrial production statistical release is also known as output for factories and mines.
The July ISM Manufacturing Survey shows PMI had a blow out increase of 4.5 percentage points to 55.4%. Manufacturing has moved into sold growth with new orders increasing by 6.4 percentage points and production roaring in an 11.6 percentage point gain. Even the employment index increased. Let's hope this month isn't a statistical anomaly for the United States sorely needs her manufacturing base to start humming again.
The June 2013 Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows a 0.3% increase in industrial production. For Q2 industrial production rose an annualized 0.6%. This is the lowest quarterly industrial production since Q3 2012 and before that, the height of the recession, Q2 2009. The G.17 industrial production statistical release is also known as output for factories and mines.
The BLS unemployment report shows total nonfarm payroll jobs gained were 195,000 for June 2013, with private payrolls adding 202,000 jobs. Government jobs declined by 7,000. May was revised up by 20,000 to show a 195,000 payroll gain and April was also revised up by 50,000 to 199,000 jobs added for that month. While this is great news, unfortunately the types of jobs gained are mostly low paying ones.
The June ISM Manufacturing Survey shows PMI recovered from last month's contraction by 1.9 percentage points to 50.9%. Manufacturing has moved into growth, but barely. Most of the major sub-indexes switched to growth except employment, which lags new orders and production. This is the first time manufacturing employment has shrunk since September 2009, not a welcome sign.
The May 2013 Federal Reserve's Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows no change in industrial production. Three of the last six months have shown no growth in industrial production and last month was a negative -0.4% change. For May, utilities output took a hit and declined -1.8% while mining increased 0.7%. Manufacturing showed a slight sign of life with a 0.1% monthly gain. Manufacturing has had little change so far for 2013, not a good sign.
The Q1 2013 Productivity & Costs revision shows labor productivity increased an annualized 0.5%. Output increased 2.1% and hours worked increased 1.6%. Hourly compensation dropped -3.8% in Q1 2013. This is the largest quarterly decline for wages in history. Between the numbers lies even more bad news for workers. Labor is simply getting squeezed to death as workers created more while being paid less. This quarterly report also shows there is no worker shortage for compensation would surely rise if demand for workers exceeded supply.
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