Business Activity Growth Hits 12Month Low on Supply HoldUps and Capacity Shortages
The Epoch Time - By Tom Ozimek - September 24, 2021
Business activity in the United States in September grew at its slowest monthly pace in 12 months, with supply chain holdups and capacity shortages hampering growth.
Data firm IHS Markit said on Sept. 23 that its flash U.S. Composite PMI Output
Index (pdf)—which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors—retreated to
a reading of 54.5 in September. That’s a drop of one percentage point from
August’s reading of 55.5 and the lowest level in 12 months. A reading above 50 indicates growth in private sector output.
“The pace of U.S. economic growth cooled further in September, having soared
in the second quarter, reflecting a combination of peaking demand, supply chain
delays, and labor shortages,” Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at
IHS Markit said in a statement. Hiring difficulties weighed on business activity, with firms reporting only a slight rise in employment for the second month in a row. Trucking issues and capacity shortages led to a substantial increase in lead
times and what the report described as “one of the greatest deterioration in
vendor performance on record.”
Cost pressures were historically high in September, as firms faced higher prices
of input materials and greater wage demands. The rate of cost inflation was the
highest in four months and the secondhighest on record. The consequence was “yet another month of sharply rising prices charged for goods and services as demand outpaces supply, and higher costs are passed on to customers,” Williamson noted. New order growth fell to its lowest reading since August 2020.
Weighing on the drop in the combined output index was a particularly weak
showing in services. The IHS Markit services business activity gauge fell to 54.4
in September, a 14month low.
There was a slowdown in new business growth in the services sector in
September, with the rate of expansion falling for the fourth month in a row due
to weaker demand and ongoing COVID19 concerns. “The slowdown was led by cooling of demand in the service sector, linked in part to the Delta variant spread,” Williamson said. Factories, which unlike services saw a robust increase in new business, fared better overall. The manufacturing PMI index fell 0.6 of a percentage point to 60.5 in September, a 5month low. Manufacturers were also able to hire at a faster pace than the service sector businesses, though hiring challenges translated into a sharp rise in backlogs of work.
“While manufacturers have seen far more resilient demand, factories face
growing problems in sourcing enough supplies and labor to meet orders,”
Williamson said. Pressure on operating capacity contributed to a recordhigh rise in outstanding business in manufacturing, and the secondfastest in over 12 years of data collection for the combined factory and services measure of activity.
Tom Ozimek REPORTER
Tom Ozimek has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
COPYRIGHTS
Copy & Paste the link above for Yandex translation to Norwegian.
WHO and WHAT is behind it all ? : >
The bottom line is for the people to regain their original, moral principles, which have intentionally been watered out over the past generations by our press, TV, and other media owned by the Illuminati/Bilderberger Group, corrupting our morals by making misbehavior acceptable to our society. Only in this way shall we conquer this oncoming wave of evil.
Commentary:
Administrator
HUMAN SYNTHESIS
All articles contained in Human-Synthesis are freely available and collected from the Internet. The interpretation of the contents is left to the readers and do not necessarily represent the views of the Administrator. Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). Human-Synthesis will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. Human-Synthesis grants permission to cross-post original Human-Synthesis articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified