Economic Reports Giving Mixed Reviews

Washington, DC, March 22, 2010--Economic reports are still giving mixed reviews on the state of the economy, according to Dave Huether, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers.

On the negative side, negative reports on homebuilder confidence and residential construction show that the housing market has yet to gain significant traction despite the enacted homebuyer tax credits, he said.

Huether noted that While conditions in the manufacturing sector have improved significantly from a year ago, when nearly every industry was in recession, the pace of the recovery has moderated over the past few months

After peaking at 15 percent growth last September, the pace gradually decelerated 2.8 percent in February, with a majority of industries posting declines in output in three of the past five months.

He said three of the 19 major manufacturing industries are struggling (paper, motor vehicles and miscellaneous manufacturing (mainly medical equipment), and five are in recession (printing, petroleum, nonmetallic minerals, aerospace, and furniture).

Also, four industries are in recovery (wood products, fabricated metals, electrical equipment and machinery), and seven are expanding (food products, textiles, apparel, chemicals, plastics, primary metals and computer and electronics). These industries account for 50 percent of manufacturing production.