Earlier this week, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) released results from the Manufacturers' Outlook Survey for the second quarter of 2018. It showed that 95.1 percent of manufacturers surveyed have a positive outlook for their companies. This level is the highest percentage recorded in the survey’s 20-year history. Two years ago, this number was at 62 percent.
NAM points out that the survey results coincided with the six-month anniversary of the passing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The survey provided a number of record-setting benchmarks, including:
- Optimism among medium-sized manufacturers, which came in at 95.8 percent.
- All-time highs reported for projected employment growth (3.1 percent) and capital spending (4.1 percent).
- Projected wage growth registered its fastest pace in 17 years at 2.7 percent.
- Projected sales growth kept pace at its second-highest reading in survey history.
Conducted by NAM Chief Economist Chad Moutray, the Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey has surveyed the association’s membership of 14,000 large and small manufacturers on a quarterly basis for the past 20 years. The NAM survey follows the May Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) which came in at 58.7 percent, indicating manufacturing growth continues for the 21st consecutive month.
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