December 8, 2008

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index declined further in November. The index fell to 102.9, down 1.6% from the October revised figure of 104.5, and down over 13% from a year ago.
 
“Thus far, the U.S. economy has lost 1.9 million jobs and the declines in the ETI suggest job losses could very well surpass 3 million by mid 2009,”said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board. “The continued deterioration in the labor market will exert significant downward pressure on wages.”
 
The 16-month long decline in the Employment Trends Index is seen in all eight of its components, most notably over the past six months in temporary-help hires and part-time workers for economic reasons, said Levanon.
 
The Employment Trends …

October U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $273.85 million, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors’Association. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 43.4% from September and down 32.3% from the total of $404.36 million reported for October 2007. With a year-to-date total of $3,802.41 million, 2008 is up 8.2% compared with 2007.

These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.

October orders for manufacturing technology declined sharply from September, although year-to-date figures are still up over 2007,”said Robert K. Simpson, AMT president. “While orders …

The U.S. manufacturing recession continued unabated, and in fact intensified in the third quarter, and is now part of a global downturn, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Quarterly Industrial Outlook -Third Quarter 2008, a report that analyzes 27 major industries.
 
“There was a sudden and acute acceleration of the decline in the industrial sector in September and October,”said Daniel J. Meckstroth, chief economist for the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI and author of the analysis. “The vicious circle of financial crisis, decline in wealth, consumer spending cuts, and job loss continues to spiral into a severe recession—certainly the worst since the early 1980s.”
 
On an annual basis, MAPI forecasts a decline in the …