Texas\u2019 roughly $300 billion manufacturing sector grew last month, although at a slower pace than it did in February, according to a widely watched monthly survey report released this week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEmployment growth stalled and workweeks were flat in March,\u201d Jesus Ca\u00f1as, a senior economist at the Dallas Fed, said in a release. Ca\u00f1as added that other manufacturing indicators, including new orders, also cooled, while price pressure on the sector was mostly unchanged compared with a month earlier and broader business perceptions were mixed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Dallas Fed\u2019s monthly Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey, one of several monthly surveys the bank conducts with the aim of collecting near real-time insight into the Texas economy, is based on data collected from 115 manufacturing executives from around the state, who answer questions about orders, employment, prices and other aspects of their business in relation to the previous month. The bank\u2019s researchers then compile the data into various indices. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For March, the survey\u2019s seasonally adjusted production index \u2014 a key indicator of overall manufacturing activity \u2014 came in at 6.8, a score that still represents growth, but was notably lower than February\u2019s score of 12.5. It was the third month in a row the production index was in positive territory, although the score also suggested \u201ca below-average pace\u201d of growth, researchers said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Several other indices, including capacity utilization, new orders and shipments, also remained in positive growth territory even as they cooled compared with a month earlier. The survey\u2019s employment index actually dipped into negative territory, with slightly more executives reporting a net employment decrease than net increase. Respondents\u2019 optimism also dipped, with more respondents reporting a worsening outlook than improving outlook.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The survey, which was conducted between March 17 and March 25 \u2014 less than a month after the U.S. and Israel initiated the Iran war \u2014 also revealed a large spike in uncertainty, with 38% of respondents reporting an increase in their business outlook uncertainty and 12% reporting a decrease.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Respondents cited geopolitical uncertainty as a concern more than business demand or inflation, the researchers noted, and in supplemental comments multiple anonymous respondents mentioned concerns about the Iran war specifically, with some citing rising energy and shipping costs.<\/p>\n
Others mentioned tariffs and what they characterized as general dysfunction from Washington, while one executive from the chemical manufacturing sector cited a demand benefit for American companies stemming from shipping disruptions in the Strait of\u00a0Hormuz. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the ongoing war in Iran has scrambled economic predictions, analysts have recently projected that Texas will still see modest jobs growth in 2026 after a flat 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas\u2019 roughly $300 billion manufacturing sector grew last month, although at a slower pace than it did in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-232470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}