The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey business conditions indicator measures activity in the following states: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, western Missouri, and northern New Mexico.

Quarterly data for this indicator dates back to 1995, but monthly data is only available from 2001.

Here is an excerpt from the latest report:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the January Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that Tenth District manufacturing activity was nearly flat in January while expectations for future activity expanded.

“Regional factory activity was down only slightly in January, and firms reported a modest increase in employment,” said Wilkerson. “Contacts reported slightly less difficulty finding workers than six months ago, but still over 60 percent of firms were experiencing labor shortages.” [Full report here]

Here is a snapshot of the complete Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey.

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The next chart is an overlay of the general and future outlook indexes — the outlook six months ahead. Future factory indexes increased in January to 15 from last month's 14.

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For comparison, here is the latest ISM Manufacturing survey.

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Let's compare all five Regional Manufacturing indicators. Here is a three-month moving average overlay of each since 2001 (for those with data).

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Here is the same chart including the average of the five.

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