Empire State Manufactureing Survey: Conditions continue to improve for New York manufacturers
The August 2014 Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that business conditions continued to improve for New York manufacturers, but the improvement was less widespread than in the previous month. The headline general business conditions index retreated eleven points to 14.7, after reaching a four-year high in July. The new orders index slipped almost five points to 14.1, while the shipments index edged up a point to 24.6—a multiyear high. The unfilled orders index inched down one point to -8.0. The indexes for both prices paid and prices received were up slightly, indicating a marginal pickup in the pace of price increases. Labor market conditions were mixed, with the employment index declining slightly but the index for hours worked rising modestly. Most of the indexes for the six-month outlook rebounded sharply, after slipping in the July survey; a number of them reached multiyear highs, signaling increasingly widespread optimism about the near-term outlook.
