The seasonally adjusted Milwaukee Report on Business declined to 58.69 in February from 59.81 in January, the Institute for Supply Management-Milwaukee reported Tuesday.
New orders received slid to 62.76 from 65.50, production grew to 69.83 from 62.50, employment decreased to 52.48 from 58.60, supplier deliveries dropped to 58.39 from 62.50, and backlog of orders climbed to 61.11 from 59.62.
Inventory levels remained at 50.00, customers' inventories held at 37.50, prices rose to 81.82 from 73.33, exports grew to 53.57 from 52.50, and imports decreased to 61.54 from 62.50.
The blue collar diffusion index fell to 52.5 from 55.4, while the white collar diffusion index decreased to 50.2 from 55.3.
