by Calculated Risk on 3/16/2009 09:15:00 AM

From the NY Fed: Empire State Manufacturing Survey

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that conditions for New York manufacturers deteriorated significantly in March. The general business conditions index fell to a fresh low of -38.2. The new orders and shipments indexes also dropped sharply to new record lows, and the inventories index declined to its lowest level since 2001. The indexes for both prices paid and prices received remained negative for a fourth consecutive month. Employment indexes remained close to their recent lows. Future indexes were somewhat higher than in February, but the six-month outlook continued to be very subdued, with capital spending and technology spending indexes falling to record lows.

More record lows ...

Here is the general business conditions index. Note that the data only goes back to July 2001 (chart to Jan 2002), so all these record lows aren't that significant.