Census Bureau Reports September Manufacturers' Data

The U.S. Dept of Commerce has released the September 2008 "Full Report on Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories and Orders".

New orders for manufactured goods in September, down two consecutive months, decreased $11.2 billion or 2.5 percent to $432.0 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

There is a lot of data in the report, almost all grim. One industry segment that stood out was farm equipment. Year to date increase over 2007 was 26.5%. Most other segments were down. And this is September data, before most of us were aware of the crisis.