Richmond Fed manufacturing index up for April 2021
The Richmond Fed manufacturing index came in at 17 versus 22 estimate. Last month the index was at 17.
- New orders 16 versus 10 last month
- employment 19 versus 22 last month
- wages 33 versus 26 last month
- availability of skills needed -24 versus -19 last month
- average workweek 20 versus 13 last month
- shipments 16 versus 22 last month
- backlog of orders 28 versus 11 last month
- capacity utilization 15 versus 14 last month
- vendor leadtime 61 versus 61 last month
- local business conditions 15 versus 20 last month
- capital expenditures 12 versus 15 last month
- finished goods inventory is -12 versus -8 last month
- raw materials inventories -16 versus -14 last month
- equipment and software spending 11 versus 15 last month
- service expenditures two versus four last month
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The price is paid index moved up to 7.11 from 6.15 last month. Prices received also increased to 4.83 from 3.52 last month.
The Richmond Fed said:
Survey responses indicated supply constraints, with the backlog of orders and vendor lead time indexes registering historic highs. Meanwhile, inventories shrank as the indexes for inventories of finished goods and raw materials reached their lowest values on record. Manufacturers were optimistic that conditions would continue to improve in the coming months.
They added:
Many manufacturing firms increased employment and wages in April. However, finding workers with the necessary skills remained difficult. Survey participants expected these trends to continue in the next six months.
On inflation
The average growth rates of both prices paid and prices received by survey participants increased in April, as growth of prices paid continued to outpace that of prices received. Respondents expected price growth to slow in the near future
