The biggest news in this report is employment went up to 56.1% and the trend lines for manufacturing hiring has finally started to move upward. ISM reports this is the highest reading since 2005. The ISM manufacturing employment graph below shows anything below zero (normalized to 50, the contraction/expansion point for the ISM) is contraction and above is expansion. As you can see, we have a manufacturing hiring expansion trend line (finally) from the survey.
The January 2010 ISM for manufacturing was released today and PMI was in at 58.4%. Even employment plans are above 50 and had a 3.1% change. A value above 50 in the ISM means growth.
I think this is the first indicator above December 2007 levels, the official start of this recession, so this is a very good, sign of life report.
The December 2009 ISM Manufacturing Report is out and PMI came in at 55.9%. This is the highest since April, 2006. New orders are at 65.2%, a huge increase, 5.2%, from last month. Employment is positive, at 52%. Take note, imports increased faster than exports, which for overall GDP is not a good thing.
Update: It seems we have a bait and switch. the Chicago ISM has been revised down.
Dow Jones reports that the Chicago Institute for Supply Management revised down the Chicago PMI to 58.7 on Thursday from the announced reading of 60.0 on Wednesday. The most significant change was to the employment index that now shows contraction at 47.6 compared to the announced 51.2.
The Chicago PMI was released December 30th, with all of the headlines ablaze that the business activity index hit 60%, the highest since 2006.
The ISM for non-manufacturing index is out and is down from last month to 50.6%. That's a barely growing number. Anything below 50 is contracting. Employment, at 41.1% has been contracting for 21 out of 22 months now.
This quote tells you which industries are part of this index:
The biggest element to note in the survey is the 6.9% jump in employment for manufacturing to 53.1. While inventories are still contracting, this implies firms are finally ramping up with new production. The employment index has been below 50 (which means contracting) for over a year.
The Institute for Supply Management released their non-manufacturing index (NMI) today. Business Activity Index at 55.1% New Orders Index at 54.2% Employment Index at 44.3% Once again, we see workers being left behind, as it has been in almost every indicator. Any index above 50 means growth. So the non-manufacturing index is showing expansion, but barely.
The September 2009 ISM manufacturing report PMI came in at 52.6% with new orders, production increasing, but the all important inventories are still contracting, supplier deliveries slower and unemployment still increasing. The overall PMI is slightly down from last month but still way above 41.2%, which is the inflection point between expansion and contraction.
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