Empire State Fed Survey: Business activity declined for New York manufacturers at the fastest pace since the Great Recession

Post: Jan. 15, 2016

The headline says it all. 

According to the New York Federal Reserve Empire State manufacturing Survey December was a terrible month for manufacturing in the region and the near future is not looking bright either. “The new orders and shipments indexes plummeted, indicating a steep decline in both orders and shipments. Price indexes suggested that both input prices and selling prices increased. Labor market conditions continued to deteriorate, with employment indexes remaining in negative territory. The six-month outlook was noticeably weaker, with the index for future general business conditions falling to its lowest level since early 2009.”

The full report is here:  https://www.newyorkfed.org/survey/empire/empiresurvey_overview.html

But to give you a taste here are the reports sub-headlines….

• BUSINESS CONDITIONS AT THEIR WORST SINCE THE GREAT RECESSION
• PRICE INCREASES RESUME
• OPTIMISM PLUMMETS

Let’s hope The Supplemental Survey Report on job vacancies, worker skills and wages that will be released January 19^th will have some better news.