by Will Kessler
New orders for manufactured durable goods, which serve as an indicator for longer-term investments from businesses and consumers, had a huge downward revision for January, following similar revisions seen in jobs data.
Orders for durable goods increased 1.4 percent in February to $277.9 billion, but January’s gains were revised down to -6.9 percent from an initial estimate of -6.1 percent, taking a huge chunk out of previously reported gains, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The revisions for durable goods orders mirror revisions in employment figures, which have repeatedly reported high growth figures that are later revised down, most recently being revised down for January by 124,000 while job growth for February was reported as 275,000.
Growth in orders has also failed to keep up with inflation, rising 13.5 percent since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, while the consumer price index has increased 18.5 percent, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Inflation continues to remain elevated, rising 3.2 percent in February, far higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.
Changes in orders for durable goods have been volatile in recent months, declining 0.3 percent in December, rising 5.4 percent in November and declining 5.1 percent in October, according to the Census Bureau. July 2023 also had a month-to-month decline of 5.6 percent, while February of last year had a decline of 2.7 percent, boosting recent gains in relative terms.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2023 overestimated the number of jobs added to the economy each month by an average of 105,000, equating to around 1.3 million fewer jobs for the year. The federal government’s revisions have often quietly wiped out entire months of positive gains that were previously reported.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Will Kessler is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Workers Move Refrigerator” Public Domain.
