Manufacturing Pickup Signals Boost to U.S. Economic Growth

American factories powered up in June at the fastest pace in nearly three years, with robust advances in production, orders and employment that indicate a firming in the economy, data from the Institute for Supply Management showed Monday. Faster growth in orders and production in the final month of the quarter indicates solid demand that, together with rising exports, shows manufacturing is on solid footing. The ISM’s pulse of employment in the industry also indicates the government’s measure of factory payrolls, released as part of the Labor Department’s jobs report on Friday, will rebound in June after declining a month earlier -- More...