The value of total construction activity for February 2009 was $967.5 billion, 0.9 percent below January 2009. Bad news, albeit less bad than recently.
New orders for manufactured goods in February increased $6.1 billion or 1.8 percent to $352.2 billion. Despite this upswing in the headline number, shipments were stagnant and the unfilled orders book slipped below a 6-month backlog. On the other hand, inventories were down and the inventory-to-shipment ratio edged down a trifle. Mixed news, on balance.
Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 663,000 in March, continuing a decline that has totaled 5.1 million over the course of the current recession. The unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent. Our proprietary composite index of current labor market indicators re-accelerated its decline. Unrelieved bad news.
Obviously our diffusion index of economic news is off to a slow start in April—only 16.7 percent of the news has been good. At the comparable point last month there had been no good news at all.
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