Most be those shovels being made for the shovel ready jobs.
When you have Industrial production rising albeit very slowly it bodes ill for more jobs. When you can increase productivity without increasing jobs, why should you hire? Another number to look at is rising inventories. When inventories rise, that means sales are lagging and may be a predictor of more future layoffs.
Largest increases were in the manufacture of guns, ammunition, survival food, hand powered wheat grinders and “Impeach Obama Now” signs.
I suspect that a rebound in economic activity is underway. The Fed has been allowing the money supply to expand at an unprecedented rate over the past year and economic activity should follow, along with a hell of a lot higher inflation rate than we’ve become used to, but the inflation will take longer to fully develop.
Granted, we’d be sailing along at a lot better clip without all the grit that the Obama administration has thrown into the gears of the economy, but I think economic growth over the next few quarters will be stronger than expected. I just hope it doesn’t bump his re-election chances up too much.