IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Inland Empire’s manufacturing sector recorded another solid month in May.
The region’s purchasing manager’s index was 55.0, the fifth consecutive month it’s been above 50, according the monthly report on manufacturing by the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino, which was released Wednesday.
Any index 50 or above means manufacturing in the two-county region is expanding; below that, it’s declining.
“We’ve had five straight good months so we’re definitely in growth mode,” said Barbara Sirotnik, director of the institute and one of the report’s authors. “But I’m not going to predict how long the trend is going to last. It’s still a volatile economy.”
A majority of the region’s manufacturers believe the trend might last for awhile.
Seventy seven percent of those surveyed expect the local economy to stay the same or improve during the next three months, while only 23 percent expect it to get worse, according to the survey.
Production, new orders, inventory and employment all improved in May compared with April, the survey reported.
