The Empire State Manufacturing Survey’s General Business Conditions Index for February registered -16.6, a slight improvement over January’s post-Great Recession low, but still indicating continued declines in manufacturing. Likewise, New Orders, Shipments, Unfilled Orders, Delivery Times and Inventories all came off their January lows, but remained in negative territory. This is the seventh consecutive month of manufacturing contraction according to the Survey. The Future (6 months from now) Business Conditions index mirrored the general trend, improving slightly from January lows, but still signaling limited optimism. See the full report here: 2016_02report