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Economy

Non-Manufacturing Horrible, Just Not AS Horrible

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Burning_money_pic_2The Institute for Supply Management has released its January non-manufacturing data.  The services economy isn’t pretty.  But it also isn’t as bad as many expected.

The ISM showed that the non-manufacturing index was 42.9 for January.  December was 40.1, and economists were expectingthat the data would hit 39.0.  This is still atrocious.  Just not as atrocious as itwas expected to be.

The business index led the performance.  It was 44.2, upfrom 38.9 in December.  Prices are still holding up or not falling asmuch. They were 42.5, up from 36.1 in December.  And new ordersalso didn’t fall as much with a reading of 41.6, up from 38.9 inDecember.

The bad news is that unemployment is getting worse.  Thatcame in at 34.4, which is just under the 34.5 reading in December.With all the retail jobs and other service sector jobs getting cut, theemployment picture will probably get worse.

The stock market did tick up on this news.  Just don’t get too excitedthat "a beat over estimates" is a win.  This is still veryrecessionary.  The companies claiming that the resumption of growthwill come from a much lower bar are finding many more followers whobelieve them.

Jon C. Ogg
February 4, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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