The ADP Total Manufacturing Payrolls series has turned negative dropping 0.09% on an annual basis, the first year-over-year decline since the waning days of the Great Recession in 2010.
Keep in mind that while manufacturing is clearly also showing strong secular weakness, this is a very sensitive series that should not be ignored.
Also, a revitalization of the nation's manufacturing sector was a important goal of the current administration's economic policy and a particularly key focus of 2009's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
