NAM: Manufacturing Employment, Earnings Increase In October Manufacturing employment increased by 32,000 in Octo- ber, up from 23,000 in September and continuing to rise solidly, according to Chad Moutray, Ph.D. and Chief Econ- omist at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Currently, the manufacturing sector has 12,922,000 em- ployees, the most since November 2008. The average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory work- ers in manufacturing rose 0.4 percent from $25.25 in Sep- tember to $25.35 in October, up 4.9 percent from one year ago. The labor market remained a bright spot in an economy that has seen softening in other areas. Through the first 10 months of 2022, the sector hired 367,000 employees, building on the 365,000 workers added in calendar year 2021 and the most so far of any year since 1994. Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 261,000 in October, and the U.S. economy has added 4,068,000 new employees year to date. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7 percent in October, with the labor force participation rate declining for the second straight month, edging down to 62.2 percent. There were 806,000 manufacturing job openings in September, averaging 853,000 over the past 12 months, remaining well above pre-pandemic levels. Nonfarm busi- ness job openings totaled 10,717,000 in September, which translated into 53.7 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings in the U.S. economy. There continues to be more job openings than people actively looking for work. Meanwhile, manufacturing activity stalled, with the ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index dropping to 50.2 in October, the lowest reading since May 2020. New orders contracted for the second straight month, and ex- ports deteriorated further. On the other hand, production strengthened somewhat, with hiring stabilizing after falling in the prior survey. More encouragingly, the index for supplier deliveries re- flected faster growth for the first time since February 2016, which indicates that the long wait times that have become prevalent over the past year have started to wane. None- theless, customer inventories remained too low. Manufacturing activity declined for the sixth straight month in the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank’s district. The sample comments noted the softening of business condi- tions, along with ongoing challenges with inflation, work- force shortages and economic and political uncertainties. Respondents remained negative in their outlook. New orders for manufactured goods rose 0.3 percent in September, but excluding transportation equipment, new factory orders edged down 0.1 percent. Core capital goods orders—a proxy for capital spending in the U.S. economy— pulled back 0.4 percent from a record high in the previous month. The factory orders data are consistent with some stalling in manufacturing demand since the summer.
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22 November 14, 2022
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