Today, the U.S. Census Bureau [1] released its advance report on durable goods: manufacturers’ shipments, inventories and orders for May. It’s important to note that over the past 16 months, increases in exports of manufactured durable goods have soared, driving higher shipments and some improvement in durable goods-supported employment.
Both orders and shipments of big ticket items can bounce around from month-to-month – the monthly wiggle we so often advise against giving undue weight, so it’s important to look at movements over longer periods of time. Between January 2010 and May of this year, shipments of durable goods climbed 8.1 percent. An important driver of this increase is exports; exports of manufactured durable goods industries soared 30.8 percent from January 2010 to April 2011. With exports driving shipments higher, it’s not surprising that employment in durable goods manufacturing also has improved, adding 259,000 jobs between January 2010 and this May. See our post [2] from last month on exports and employment for durable goods industries.
~Mark Doms, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Commerce
June 24th, 2011
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