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Market Minute: Manufacturing stuck in slow growth despite increased shipments

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Shipments of durable goods manufactured in the U.S. moved back above $600 billion in nominal terms in June, regaining the output first reached in 2022.

While this is good news, it’s clear that the country’s manufacturing sector is stuck in a period of slow growth.

To that point, surveys by the regional Federal Reserve banks showed reduced activity during the first half of 2025 and only mixed results in July. Manufacturers in the Philadelphia and Dallas regions were the only two out of five surveyed that reported increased activity.

Nonetheless, manufacturing shipments of durable goods increased by 2% on a six-month annualized basis in both May and June—on par with the average for the first half of this year.

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About Joseph Brusuelas

@JoeBrusuelas

Joe Brusuelas, “chief economist to the middle market,” is the preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing midsize companies in the United States and around the world. An award-winning economist, Brusuelas has more than 20 years’ experience analyzing U.S. monetary policy, labor markets, fiscal policy, international finance, economic indicators and the condition of the U.S. consumer.

A member of the Wall Street Journal’s forecasting panel and the UCLA Anderson School of Management's Board of Directors, Brusuelas regularly briefs members of Congress and other senior officials regarding the impacts of federal policy on the middle market and the factors by which middle market executives make business decisions. He also frequently offers his insights on the U.S., Canadian and global economies in the financial media. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential economists by Richtopia. In December 2023, Brusuelas and the economics team were recognized on Bloomberg's list of Best Bond Forecasters after correctly predicting where the benchmark Treasury would end the year.

Before joining RSM in 2014, Brusuelas spent four years as a senior economist at Bloomberg L.P. and the Bloomberg Briefs newsletter group, where he co-founded the award-winning Bloomberg Economic Brief. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Moody's Analytics covering the U.S. and global economies for the Dismal Scientist website. He also served as chief economist at Merk Investments L.L.C. and chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal.

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