The Empire State Manufacturing survey for November 2010 is out and what a nosedive! General Business Conditions dropped 27 points! New Orders dropped 37 points in a month.

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that conditions deteriorated in November for New York State manufacturers. For the first time since mid-2009, the general business conditions index fell below zero, declining 27 points to -11.1. The new orders index plummeted 37 points to -24.4, and the shipments index also fell below zero. The indexes for both prices paid and prices received declined, with the latter falling into negative territory. The index for number of employees remained above zero but was well below its October level, and the average workweek index dropped to -13.0. Future indexes generally climbed, suggesting that conditions were expected to improve in the months ahead, although the capital spending and technology spending indexes inched lower.

New orders is an indicator of future business activity. Notice the crash and burn on new orders, yet on the future business conditions index, or "do you think it all will be better in 6 months", the index was up, 54.6. Bear in mind, this survey represents just New York, not the entire country.

Employment didn't fare well either, although that index was above zero.

Employment indexes were also lower. The index for number of employees fell 13 points but, at 9.1, remained above zero, indicating that employment levels were modestly higher in November. The average workweek index, however, fell below zero, to -13.0, indicating that the average length of the employee workweek was shorter.