This morning, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago released December 2012 figures for the Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index (CFMMI), an index that uses hours worked data as a measure of industry output in the Midwest region (IL, IN, IA, MI, WI).
The overall CFMMI increased 0.7% in December to a seasonally adjusted level of 94.7 (2007 = 100); also, revised data show that the index was up 2.0% between October (92.2) and November (94.1). Regional and national output increased in December from a year earlier by 6.2% and 2.7% respectively. Between November and December 2012, production in two of the four regional sectors increased:
- +1.5% auto sector (plastics and rubber products, transportation equipment)
- +0.7% steel sector (primary metal industries, fabricated metal products)
- -0.1% resource sector (food, paper, wood products, chemicals and nonmetallic mineral products)
- -0.3% machinery sector (machinery, computers, & electronic equipment, appliances and components manufacturing)
The full press release can be found online.
