Local manufacturing drops

Manufacturing in the Inland Empire dropped significantly during October, according to data released today.

The region’s purchasing managers index last month was 47.6, down from 56.2 in September, the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino reported in its monthly analysis of the Inland Empire’s manufacturing sector.

That’s a substantial decline, and well below the dividing line – 50 – that determines whether manufacturing is growing or declining.

However, the slow month can be attributed to seasonal factors and is not a cause for alarm, Barbara Sirotnik, director of the institute and a co-author of the report.

Last year’s October index was 45.9, and the September 2014 index was 48.8, Sirotnik noted.

“I’m not panicking yet,” Sirotnik said. “There’s some seasonality to these numbers, and there’s a lot of concern right now. I think a lot of people are scared to death about how the election is going to turn out and how that might affect the [stock] market.”

Two main components of the index, production and new orders, also fell below 50 last month, but the report added that similar drops happened one year ago and both categories recovered.

Confidence in the local economy also fell last month.

Thirty four percent of the purchasing managers surveyed said they expect the Inland economy to get weaker during the next three months, up from 18 percent last month. Nineteen percent said they expect the economy to get stronger during that time, while the remaining 47 percent said they expect it to stay the same, according to the report.