Everyone I talk to with jobs related to production or manufacturing have slowed down very noticeably in the last few months. Remember when no one could hire enough? Not it seems like layoffs are the new buzz
Great Depression, Part Two, is pending.
Yes, business is slowing, it’s a recession.
“Heck, this company started during the great depression-—if this keeps up it will be closed in a matter of 6 months.”
Cause the blind fail to see the current onset of Great Depression 2.0
Yes. We deal with manufacturers as well as provide end-user services. The former has shown severe contraction. People don’t have the money right now and are trying to weather the storm.
No, not at all, real busy for me, but since I am basically a drug dealer, I always have a lot of work and get about 5 new customers every week and it never stops.
Same thing with the chip shortage. There is none and folks I know can’t sell any!
Our housing and infrastructure products business has been slowing (siding, roofing, PVC pipe including residential/municipal/mining, fencing, decking) with the housing start decline. Our chemicals business is doing ok not great, with caustic underpinning our profitability, along with reasonable energy and raw mat’l costs. Our raw material pricing is pinned to natural gas, not oil, so we’ve been pretty well positioned versus companies that crack naptha (mostly overseas competition).
The aerospace and rocket manufacturing business is um, booming ;-)
I work for one of the largest money making companies on the planet. Sometimes we are busy and sometimes we are slow, but we have been in constant hiring mode since COVID because we can’t keep employees at my site. So right now we are kind of slow but through the constant attrition of employees we stay fairly busy.
Well, I’m slow in retirement.
But then...I’m old.
I am sorry to hear how bad things are at your plant.
We are entering a “real” recession (although we’ve been in an economic recession for a while.)
We really haven’t been in a good ole high unemployment, contraction type of recession for almost 25 years.
This is what happens when the government sticks their noses into the economic cycles. The natural death and life of the cycle has been artificially held off since 2008. Now, when it happens the government is not going to have its normal “tools” to make it easier to survive.
Companies will fail. Housing will collapse. Taxes will go up.
In a year or so it will start coming back.
I’m retired now, but was in the electronics industry. Things were always slow this time of year. Between graduations, vacations and such, things would almost grind to a halt. That was in normal times. These aren’t really normal times though.
We’re not, but got some interesting scuttlebutt from the FedEx freight driver this morning:
They’ve never been so slow, workers/drivers have been furloughed and FE is closing a distribution hub to be “more efficient”.
It doesn’t bode well.
I am in avionics supply. Our business seems pretty strong at the moment, but we have a backlog because of parts shortages. I think covid has broken the white collar portion of our business. The factory is still producing. Time will tell.
I am in avionics supply. Our business seems pretty strong at the moment, but we have a backlog because of parts shortages. I think covid has broken the white collar portion of our business. The factory is still producing. Time will tell.
The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index in the US increased to -10.4 in May of 2023 from a nearly three-year low of -31.3 in April, and better than market forecasts of -19.8. General manufacturing activity in Philadelphia continued to decline overall but at at the slowest pace in four months. New orders (-8.9 vs -22.7) and shipments (-4.7 vs -7.3) rose from last month but remained negative while employment declined (-8.6 vs -0.2). The price indexes remained below long-run averages, with the prices received index declining further (-7 vs -3.3) although prices paid increased slightly more (10.9 vs 8.2). The survey’s future indexes continued to reflect muted expectations for growth (-10.3 vs -1.5), with almost 37% of the firms expecting a decrease in activity over the next six months. source: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
and
The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index unexpectedly sank to -31.8 in May of 2023 from 10.8 in April, compared to forecasts of -3.75. It is the lowest reading in four months, pointing to a sharp drop in manufacturing business activity in the New York State, after a big rebound in April. New orders (-28 vs 25.1) and shipments (-16.4 vs 23.9) plunged after rising significantly last month. Also, delivery times shortened somewhat (-5.7 vs 0), inventories contracted (-12.3 vs 8.2) and both employment (-3.3 vs -8) and hours worked (-3.5 vs -6.4) edged lower for a fourth consecutive month. At the same time, prices increased slightly (34.9 vs 33) and capital spending plans turned sluggish (0.9, the lowest in three years). Meanwhile, the six-month business conditions index increased only marginally to 9.8 from 6.6, in a sign businesses continued to expect little improvement in conditions over the next six months. source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
I’m in Pharma in IT and we are going gangbusters.