WASHINGTON — Manufacturing in the U.S. slumped further in November as exports tumbled and automakers slashed their assembly rate to the lowest level in more than 18 years.
Industrial production fell 0.6 percent, the third drop in four months, the Federal Reserve said Monday in Washington. The New York Fed reported the weakest factory performance in its region this month since its survey began in 2001.
Monday’s figures may intensify pressure on the Bush administration to prevent a collapse of General Motors.
As consumer demand slides with higher unemployment and a cut-off of credit, manufacturing is poised to keep contracting into 2009, economists said.
“Companies are cutting back on investment, capital, inventories and production, and you should see this number going down,” said Lindsey Piegza, a market analyst at FTN Financial in New York. “The crisis has spread to all parts of the production line, and we’re really going to have to cut back more.”
As a recession spreads across the globe, the overseas demand for American products that had sustained U.S. manufacturing growth is drying up.
