Another bit of good news today from the Commerce Department about December manufacturing orders: “New orders for manufactured goods in December, up two consecutive months, increased $5.3 billion or 1.1 percent to $466.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 2.2 percent November increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.6 percent. Shipments, up seven consecutive months, increased $3.4 billion or 0.7 percent to $459.4 billion. This followed a 0.2 percent November increase. Unfilled orders, up twenty of the last twenty one months, increased $12.7 billion or 1.4 percent to $911.5 billion. This followed a 1.3 percent November increase. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.00, down from 6.13 in November.”
Just keep in mind that different data releases come out with different lags. This is news about December manufacturing while we also today got news about January jobs, so we’ve known since last month’s jobs report that manufacturing was hiring people.
