PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region showed broad gains in its January survey.
For the second consecutive month, all of the component indexes in the bank's survey showed growth in the survey taken the first two weeks of the month, although growth slowed from December with the leading diffusion index dropping from 20.8 in December to 19.3.
The survey's headline index increased slightly from 22.5 a month ago to 24.2 in December.
The index for new orders rose 13 points to 23.6, rising for the fourth consecutive month. The number of employees index also gained 13 points reaching 17.6, although the index for work hours at manufacturing businesses dropped from 16.8 to 10.6, the Fed said.
The index for prices paid by manufacturers added 6.4 points to 54.3. The index for inventories turned positive in the month, rising from minus 5.9 to 6.8.
