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With all the uncertainty about the direction of the U.S. economy right now, Electrical Wholesaling’s editors figured electrical distributors, reps, manufacturers and contractors needed good data on key market drivers that shape electrical market business conditions. “The Electrical Market By the Numbers” will be a new monthly feature on www.ewweb.com with the latest data available on key indicators such as contractor and industrial employment, electrical pricing trends, copper pricing, electrical manufacturers’ shipment and new orders, billings at architects, residential construction and freight rail traffic. We are just highlighting the monthly, annual and in some cases quarterly changes in these key indicators. Green arrows show increases, red arrows indicate declines and amber circles point to either no change in the data or a change of less than one percent.
This data will be of particular interest in the coming months because of tariffs. Although the full slate of the Trump Administration’s tariffs have not yet gone into full effect just yet, most economists believe their impact on the economy will be dramatic and potentially enough to push what had been a solid economy into recession.
A LOOK AT THIS MONTH'S DATA
With the exception of single-family housing construction and NEMA’s monthly ElectroIndustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI), most of the movement to the downside in these indicators has been rather mild, because they are still looking in the rear-view mirror back toward March and April. Still, even though many of the changes have been small the chart below still has a distinct red and amber tone this month with more red arrows than green.
NEMA’s EBCI, a monthly survey of senior electrical executives, saw more dramatic swings in its current and future indexes to markets well below the 50-point line indicating growth. The EBCI can fluctuate a fair amount each month, but the monthly changes to the negative of more than 20 points -- and even larger changes looking six months out – may certainly be cause for concern.
We hope you enjoy The Electrical Market By the Numbers. Electrical Wholesaling’s editors will tweak it over the next few months, and may be modifying which indicators to highlight. Do you have a “pet” economic indicator that we should be tracking? Contact Jim Lucy, EW’s editor-in-chief, and we will see if we can include it.
