Good news on the economy yesterday came from the manufacturing sector, which accounts for about 11 percent of our overall economy. The Institute for Supply Management announced that its factory index rose to its highest level since May 2004. In Bloomberg's survey of economists about where the factory index would land for January, the highest number offered was 59.5, but the figure beat even that rosiest of predictions, coming in at 60.8.
The specific area leading that unexpected increase was the measure of new orders, which jumped to its highest level since January 2004. A good question that comes out of all this: Will all this manufacturing activity make a dent in the unemployment rate? Bloomberg's economists estimate that we gained roughly 10,000 manufacturing jobs in January.
In the bigger picture, one estimate has the number of jobs added in January as 140,000 - another good but not great figure. The official jobs number is due out at the end of this week. We'll keep you posted.
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