The service sector, providing goods and materials to various industries, is reporting growth in June, continuing a trend that has been on the upside since the spring of 2020.
According to the Tempe, Arizona-based Institute for Supply Management, all of the 18 sectors it follows also reported an increase in the cost of materials. The construction industry saw price increases in basic building materials, as well as diesel fuel, paint and polyvinyl chloride, steel products, and transformers, among other items.
Respondents in the Institute’s most recent ISM Report on Business pointed to a wide variety of challenges, including increased interest rates, inflation, and ongoing supply chain problems.
But despite the overall supply chain problems, a growing number of factory managers, according to the survey, said their suppliers were picking up the pace of deliveries.
The survey also revealed that electrical components, microchips, baby formula, needles and syringes, and paper products are among the commodities most often listed as being in short supply.
In a statement, Timothy Fiore, chair of the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing business survey committee, said, “The U.S. manufacturing sector continues to be powered, though less so in June, by demand, while held back by supply chain constraints.”
At the same time, “companies improved their progress on addressing moderate-term labor shortages at all tiers of the supply chain.”
The Institute for Supply Management is the largest supply management association in the world with more than 50,000 members worldwide. The ISM Report on Business has been in continual publication since 1923.
By Garry Boulard
