World Business Chicago tracks indicators from month to month to gauge the strength of several aspects of Chicago’s regional economy, including employment in major sectors, residential and office real estate data, price and purchasing indexes, rail carloads, and auto and truck sales. Key trends evident in this month’s (Dec 2010) “By The Numbers” include:
• The regional preliminary unemployment rate dropped to 8.7% in December 2010 before seasonal adjustment, nearly two full percentage points below the December 2009 rate of 10.6%.
• The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (“Chicago Business Barometer”), a monthly index tracking manufacturing activity based on surveys of purchasing managers, increased in December 2010 to a value of 66.8; this is nearly 8 points higher than the December 2009 and is nearly 5 points higher than the November 2010 value.
• The Chicago Midwest Manufacturing Index, a monthly index tracking manufacturing activity, also rose in December 2010 to 81.5 (from 75.2 in December 2009).
• The December 2010 Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was 54.2, indicating an increase in demand for design services, which can be a positive prediction of future construction activity.
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