The seasonally adjusted Milwaukee Report on Business decreased to 56.16 in September from 64.63 in August, the Institute for Supply Management-Milwaukee reported Friday.
“Cost increases are continuing,” according to a respondent. “Some of the increases are listing the reason as tariffs that have been imposed in 2018.”
Another added, “Tariffs are going to kill us as 90% of the goods we sell in the U.S. are produced in China.”
New orders received slid to 56.98 from 65.84, production fell to 51.49 from 61.10, employment dropped to 51.07 from 60.06, supplier deliveries declined to 74.04 from 82.81, and backlog of orders plunged to 56.67 from 76.92.
Inventory levels fell to 47.22 from 53.33, customers’ inventories grew to 34.62 from 29.17, prices rose to 88.89 from 86.67, exports decreased to 45.83 from 54.17, and imports fell to 65.00 from 70.00.
The blue collar diffusion index dropped to 54.3 from 64.4, while the white collar diffusion index slipped to 54.3 from 56.7.
