As we observed in the case of the employment report, the bright spot in an otherwise modest gain in employment was manufacturing. The 30-year US Treasury bond was flat after the employment report, but fell more than a point in price, mostly after the PMI release.
One additional job in manufacturing adds a lot more to GDP than one additional job in fast food or health care. General Motors has $764,000 in sales per employee, vs $58,000 for McDonald’s. Manufacturing may be a small part of GDP, but an increase in manufacturing employment growth adds perhaps ten times more to overall sales than an equivalent increase in fast-food or retail employment.