Capacity Utilization at Record Low

Another better late than never post as I'm still on the road... this morning's industrial production and capacity utilization release (via RTT News):

The Federal Reserve noted that output in the second quarter as a whole fell at an annual rate of 11.6 percent, a more moderate contraction than in the first quarter, when output fell 19.1 percent.

Decreases in output in both the manufacturing and mining sectors contributed to the continued drop in industrial production in June. While manufacturing output fell by 0.6 percent, mining output fell 0.5 percent.

On the other hand, the output of utilities increased by 0.8 percent in June after decreasing in each of the four previous months.

The report also showed that the capacity utilization rate fell to a record low of 68.0 percent in June from a revised 68.2 percent in May. Capacity utilization had been expected to fall to 67.9 percent compared to the 68.3 percent originally reported for the previous month.

A record low not only in aggregate, but also in manufacturing, mining, AND utilities.



And an updated (shortened) version of my chart with unimpressive fit.



Source: BLS / Federal Reserve