OCTOBER 1949 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FIELD SERVICE SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS Albuquerque, N. Mex. Memphis 3, Tenn. 203 W. Gold Ave. 229 Federal Bldg. Atlanta 1, Ga. Miami 32, Fla. y^^%\ 50 Whitehall St. SWi 36 NE. First St. Vol. 29 ffi i jj[f\fl No. 10 Baltimore 2, Md. Milwaukee 1 , Wis. ' I ^-gSplgi m | 1 0*1 SI Pair <5t- ^171? W;a«n,w»c>*.. A*r<k Boston 9, Mass. Minneapolis 1, Minn. 2 India St* 2d Ave . S. at 4th St. X^H^^ OCTOBER 1949 Bnffalo 3, N. Y. Mobile, Ala. 117 Ellicott St* 109-13 St. Joseph St. Butte, Mont. New Orleans 12, La. /^ 14 W. Granite St* 333 St. Charles Ave. Charleston 3, S. C. New York 4, N. Y. 18 Broad St* 42 Broadway PAGE ™TT!^ ™ Oklahoma City 2, Okla. THE BUSINESS SITUATION . 1 304 Federal Office Bldg* 1Q2 Nw Third ^ Second-Quarter Corporate Profits . 4 ChlT/M\- A Omaha2,Nebr. 332S.M1chlganAr.i 1319 Farnam St. Plant and Equipment Outlays . * . 5 Cincinnati 2, Ohio 105 W. Fourth Sti P^adelphia 2, Pa. * * * 42 S. Fifteenth St. Cleveland 14, Ohio 925 Euclid Ave* Phoenix 8, Ariz. SPECIAL ARTICLE 234 N. Central Ave* Public and Private Debt in 1948 . 6 Dallas 2, Tex. 1114 Commerce St* Pittsburgh 19, Pa. 700 Grant St. * * * Denver 2, Colo. 828 Seventeenth St* Portland 4, Oreg. NEW OR REVISED STATISTICAL SERIES 520 SW. Morrison St. Detroit 26, Mich. Revision of Business Sales and Inventories 12 230 W. Fort Sti Providence 3 R I 24 Weybossett St. El Paso 7, Tex. * * * 310 San Francisco St; Reno, Nev. 118 W. Second St. MONTHLY BUSINESS STATISTICS . S-l to S-40 Hartford 1, Conn. 135 High St* Richmond 19, Va. Statistical Index Inside Back Cover 801 E. Broad St. Houston 14, Tex. 602 Federal Office Bldg. bt* LomB *' Mo' 1114 Market St Jacksonville 1 Fla. Salt Lake City 1, Utah 311 W. Monroe St* 350 S. Main St. Published by the Department of Commerce, CHARLES SAWYER, Kansas City 6, Mo. San Francisco 11, Calif. Secretary. Office of Business Economics, M. JOSEPH ME EH AN, 911 Walnut St, 555 Battery St. Director. Subscription price, including meekly statistical supplement, $3 a Los Angeles 12, Calif. Savannah, Ga. year; Foreign $4. Single copy 25 cents. Send remittances to any Depart- 312 North Spring St. 125-29 Bull St. ment of Commerce Field Office or to the Superintendent of Documents, Louisville 2, Ky. Seattle 4, Wash. United States Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. Special 631 Federal Bldg. 909 First Ave. subscription arrangements, including changes of address, should be made directly with the Superintendent of Documents. Make checks payable to Treasurer of the United States. For local telephone listing, consult section Contents are not copyrighted and may be freely reprinted. devoted to U. S. Government wmaw///////^^^^^^ OCTOBER 1949 IRETAIL TRADE i A BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ^ ALL RETAIL STORES J The stability 1 THE I of total retail J trade since ^^-/^r^*^/ ^^VV ** VX ^ J January is due- ^^/^ TOTAL 10 1 1^ P to the continued /s ^ 1 p strength of J sales in 1 8 I p durable goods 1 ^— — '"^ "*\ ^^*^«. J stores 1 ^^ NONDURABLE GOODS STORES SITUATION By the Office of Business Economics ..•-. ..••••••••—. ...••—••••* ....—••• V jCONOMIC activity moved forward in September with x.—.-—- X a better than average seasonal performance. In general, the 1 DURABLE GOODS STORES 1 change was not marked except that business purchasing was 1 more in line with current levels of consumption and invest- ment use of products than was true in the spring and early summer months. The result of the shift for the third quarter i i i i i 1 i i i I i 1 i t i i i 1 i i t i i 1 i i i i i i i i i i i was to produce an over-all stability in economic activity, in : contrast to the moderate downward trend in the first half of J DURABLE GOODS STORES p reflecting. 1 the year. J higher i Industrial production has moved up from the mid-summer ip automobile low, though coal output was cut by the work stoppage which AUTOMOTIVE GROUP ..• i % sales. ><.••*••*** began on September 19, and further reductions in total out- put were in the offing as the result of the stoppage in steel which began on October 1. Employment was seasonally 1** >iz.z. ^r/y£/? lower during September with the return of students to school and the lag in harvesting operations in many agricultural areas, but unemployment declined to 3.4 million, the lowest • 1 figure since May. \ 1 1 1 1 1 iw. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 t 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 <W Construction activity, particularly residential, continued ^ to be a strong spot. The value of building put in place in 6 September exceeded $1.9 billion, slightly more than in August ip Sales in non- NONDURABLE GOODS STORES 1 and about the same as in the corresponding month of last ^ durable goods year. Department store sales advanced with the showing of ^ stores, except 1 ^|(^^-x«s--111^ fall merchandise. p for the food _S*^*~'^^ ^^>^XX. 5 I1 p group, declined. ^x^ X^£ ^,/f/p ^X-. 1 Demand maintained - Most other economic indicators supported the dominant note of stability or modest improvement in the late summer - and early fall. Wholesale prices edged slightly upward— though prices of some imported commodities were lower at the end of September, following the devaluation of foreign currencies. Manufacturers7 new orders in August were at about the same level as in June and the volume of sales r ' moved to higher levels. ^ FOOD GROUP _ •1 Since early spring there has been little change in personal incomes—at $211.5 billion, on a seasonally adjusted annual basis in August—or in retail sales, as depicted in the chart \ on the left. A cross-current in the economic situation was • the weakening demand for capital goods, described in the ! section below on plant and equipment expenditures. Total industrial production gains The rise in industrial production in September reflected f. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, OFFICE OF BUSINESS ECONOMICS 49-324 further gains in output of basic industries such as steel, %>. automobiles, lumber, textiles, paperboard, and crude pe- 857500—49 1 SUEVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS October 1949 troleum. In general, the rate of output in September was than in August of 1948. Otherwise, the changes were small; higher than in any month since May though still below the jewelry stores and men's and women's apparel were both peak reached in the autumn of last year. lower than in July on an adjusted basis and sales in food and For most industries the advance from the July low point jewelry stores were higher. There was an increase of 6 per- was somewhat more than seasonal. The automobile indus- cent in building materials from July and a modest decline for try continued to operate at a record rate in September, turn- hardware stores. The total volume of retail sales in August ing out over 600,000 cars and trucks for the second consecu- on the basis of the revised series of retail sales appearing in tive month, despite fewer working days. Sales of copper this month's issue was $128 billion on a seasonally adjusted expanded further, although at a much smaller rate than in annual basis—3 percent below August of last year which was August, and output of lumber rose more than seasonally. the postwar peak. However, deliveries of freight cars to railroads continued their downward trend in line with the substantial reduction Wholesale markets stabilize in order on the books of car builders which are now only about one-fifth as large as at the beginning of the year. The rise in wholesale prices from August to September, Similar production gains were reported for many of the though not large, carried forward the general stabilization of nondurable-goods industries following the midsummer vaca- markets which developed in early summer, following the tion shut-downs. Reflecting the sharp upturn in new orders steady decline from the autumn of last year. Industrial which have been running at a record rate since July, output of paperboard in September on a daily average basis reached Chart 2.—Weekly Wholesale and Spot Market Prices a new postwar peak. Gasoline refinery operations were maintained close to the earlier highs. There was a substan- INDEX, 1926 =100 INDEX, AUG. 1939 = 100 160 I 260 tial increase in rayon deliveries to a level above the previous WHOLESALE PRICES SPOT MARKET PRICES postwar peak and some rise in cotton consumption. (26 COMMODITIES) ALL COMMODITIES Effect.of work stoppages on output Steel output, as a result of the work stoppage, dropped from about 85 percent of rated capacity in late September to 150 250 close to 8 percent in the first 2 weeks of October. Produc- tion of bituminous coal had dropped to 2 million tons per week in the last 2 weeks of September, compared with the COMMODITIES OTHER rate of 8 million tons previously prevailing under the 3-day THAN FARM AND FOODS workweek and 11 million tons in the period prior to July 9 140 240 under the normal workweek. In anthracite mines, where output had also been cut, full operations were resumed on October 3 and the strike was lifted also for bituminous mines located west of the Mississippi River.