{"id":213783,"date":"2026-01-02T21:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/213783\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T21:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T21:24:06","slug":"us-factory-growth-slowed-even-as-hiring-picked-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/213783\/","title":{"rendered":"US Factory Growth Slowed, Even As Hiring Picked Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 jVeAzN kxxbia\">ut a rebound in demand. Price pressures cooled: input and selling prices rose at the slowest rate in 11 months, but firms still said tariffs were pushing costs up and enabling some pass-through to customers.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 jVeAzN kxxbia\">Why should I care?<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 jVeAzN kxxbia\">For markets: Factories can\u2019t outproduce their order books forever.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 jVeAzN kxxbia\">A PMI above 50 is a good headline, but slipping new orders raise the odds that output \u2013 and eventually hiring \u2013 cools to match demand. That would matter for industrial earnings and logistics, which tend to feel slowdowns early. And while <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/inflation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inflation<\/a> in the pipeline is easing, tariff-linked costs could keep margins and <a data-state=\"closed\" class=\"sc-ce6d94d2-0 huanRg sc-ce6d94d2-2 bvljLv\" href=\"https:\/\/finimize.com\/glossary\/consumer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">consumer<\/a> prices under pressure.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 jVeAzN kxxbia\">The bigger picture: Trade frictions can keep inflation sticky.<\/p>\n<p font-weight=\"400\" font-family=\"paragraph\" font-size=\"1rem,,1.25rem\" class=\"sc-f616428d-0 sc-67b61098-0 jVeAzN kxxbia\">Manufacturers sounded cautiously optimistic about the year ahead, but confidence dipped as fresh work didn\u2019t fully replace existing orders. If tariffs keep lifting costs, disinflation gets harder even when growth cools. The broader signal is classic late-cycle tension \u2013 firms are still producing and staffing up, but they need demand to catch up, or the adjustment usually comes through output first and jobs later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ut a rebound in demand. Price pressures cooled: input and selling prices rose at the slowest rate in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-213783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}