According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the August Workforce Participation Rate was 61.7 (in July it was 61.4). This is good news. In February it was 63.4, so we are moving in the right direction after the coronavirus shutdown. Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about August manufacturing levels.
The Epoch Times reports:
U.S. manufacturing levels exceeded economists’ expectations in August, accelerating close to a two-year high as new orders increased beyond that of July, according to data from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released on Sept. 1.
The ISM’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which gauges national factory activity, rose to 56.0 last month, marking the fourth straight month of economic growth for the manufacturing sector.
A PMI reading above 50 points indicates an expansion in the manufacturing sector, which makes up 11 percent of the U.S. economy. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast a more modest increase.
The index, which climbed from a reading of 54.2 in July, is now at its highest since November 2018.
I know this is just an incredible coincidence, but it seems that when a Republican is in the White House, good economic news always exceeds economists’ expectations.
The article also reports:
According to ISM Chair Timothy Fiore, the August data also “indicates expansion in the overall economy for the fourth month in a row after a contraction in April, which ended a period of 131 consecutive months of growth.” A PMI reading above 42.8 generally indicates economic expansion.
Fiore also said that the ISM’s New Orders Index had reached 67.6 percent—a 6.1 percentage point increase from July. The production index increased, as did the order backlog and supplier deliveries indexes. According to the ISM, inventory levels fell in August while prices, new export orders, and imports all increased.
The employment index for August continued to show factory workers losing their jobs, although at a slower rate than in July. The federal government’s employment report is due out on Sept. 4, and the Reuters survey of economists is expected to show that roughly 1.4 million jobs were created in August, after 1.76 million were added in July.
The economy is coming back, and statistically the virus is declining. That is a great combination.