U.S. manufacturing output unexpectedly falls in December on autos

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! Finance

Reuters

U.S. manufacturing output unexpectedly falls in December on autos

Fri, January 14, 2022, 9:52 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Production at U.S. factories unexpectedly fell in December, pulled down by a decline in output at motor vehicle plants amid an ongoing global semiconductor shortage. ... Manufacturing output dropped 0.3% last month after increasing 0.6% in November, the Federal Reserve said on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast factory production rising 0.5%. Output increased 3.5% compared to December 2020.

Manufacturing, which accounts for 11.9% of the U.S. economy, remains supported by lean inventories at businesses as demand for goods remains strong. But COVID-19 and the recovery from the pandemic have overstretched supply chains, igniting inflation. ... Manufacturing production increased at a 4.9% annualized rate in the fourth quarter after rising at a 4.0% rate in the July-September quarter.

Production at auto plants dropped 1.3% last month after rising 1.7% in November. Motor vehicle output is about 6% below its year-earlier level. ... Last month's decline in manufacturing output combined with a 1.5% decline in utilities to push industrial production down 0.1%. That followed a 0.7% gain in November. Utilities were undercut by unseasonably warm weather in December, which lessened demand for heating.

Mining production rose 2.0%. Industrial production grew at a 4.0% rate in the fourth quarter. That followed a 3.5% pace of increase in the third quarter. ... Capacity utilization for the manufacturing sector, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, decreased 0.2 percentage point to 77.0% in December. Overall capacity use for the industrial sector slipped 0.1 percentage point to 76.5% last month. It is 3.1 percentage points below its 1972-2020 average. ... Officials at the Fed tend to look at capacity use measures for signals of how much "slack" remains in the economy — how far growth has room to run before it becomes inflationary.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-manufacturing-output-unexpectedly-falls-145217077.html

[machoneman]

1. Oh, horrors! 3/10ths of 1 percent! Dems in disarray! Call out the US Army.....Jeesh!

[Sherman A1]

3. +1000

[PatrickforB]

4. I really like your posts, mahatmakanejeeves. You must be a data person like me.

It is interesting about the global semiconductor shortage and what that implies in the labor market. Tesla, apparently, has done some vertical supply line stuff around their semiconductors - I was reading that somewhere. And there was also an article about how automakers are all trying to do that, but are coming up against a serious nationwide shortage of software developers.

I know in my region, I publish a labor supply/demand report every month, and for about the last two years, the top three jobs posted have been Registered Nurse, Software Developer, and Truck Driver. Truck drivers always fall third, but RNs and Software Developer postings vie for first place month over month.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Thanks. I've hit a string of "not particularly upbeat" posts this week.

I don't control the news. It happens, and I post it here.

Are the RN openings for traveling RNs?

Thanks for writing.

Happy New Year.

[PatrickforB]

7. Right now, most are for hospitals, but yes, also RN staffing companies, which would

include traveling RNs as a subset. I ran across an article that said the in Colorado, 27% of hospitals are experiencing critical staffing shortages.

[Scrivener7]

5. Yes, I get the semiconductor shortage cause for this, but I have no doubt that

US manufacturers are also loving the insane increases in used car prices and understand that new car shortages might lead to the same for them.

[Deminpenn]

8. Workers go on vacation and some plants actually shut down

the last couple of weeks in Dec because employees want the holidays off.