US October manufacturing PMI rises to 55.5: production accelerates while price and delivery pressures persist

Archival photograph: a worker installs a seat in an F-150 at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri, on October 8, 2008. “Kansas City Assembly”, photograph and copyright: Ford Motor Co. Source: Wikimedia Commons; CC BY 2.0. This image is not evidence of ISM survey participation or October 2026 activity.

Production accelerates as employment growth eases

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported on November 2, 2026, that its October Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index was 55.5, up 1.0 percentage point from September’s 54.5 and in expansion territory for a tenth consecutive month. All five components that directly make up the composite were above 50: new orders at 55.5, production at 59.0, employment at 52.4, supplier deliveries at 59.1 and inventories at 51.4. The production index rose 2.3 percentage points from the previous month to its highest level since November 2021.¹²

The components are moving at different speeds. New orders increased by only 0.2 percentage point. The employment index fell from 52.7 to 52.4, indicating that employment growth reported by surveyed businesses continued at a slightly slower pace; it cannot be used to calculate the number of jobs added. Under ISM’s methodology, a supplier-deliveries reading above 50 means deliveries are slowing, rather than that logistics are becoming more efficient. The raw-materials price index eased from 77.9 to 75.2, suggesting that price increases became somewhat less widespread while remaining elevated. It is neither a year-over-year inflation rate nor evidence that purchasing prices have fallen.¹²

Industry differences and the limits of the indexes

The industry breakdown also cautions against treating the composite as the experience of every factory. ISM says five of the six largest manufacturing industries expanded, while printing, paper and nonmetallic mineral products were among the industries contracting. Respondents mentioned pressures involving price volatility, lead times and tariffs. These anonymous observations help explain business decisions but are not independently measured industry-wide cost data. The survey organizes its sample according to manufacturing industries’ weights in the economy and captures the monthly direction seen by purchasing and supply executives. It should be read alongside subsequent hard data on output, orders and employment.¹²

From an investment and supply-chain perspective, orders and production both being in expansion territory supports an assessment of resilient near-term demand. If elevated price readings and slower deliveries persist, however, capacity constraints could continue to affect fulfillment and margins. ISM uses a historical relationship to estimate the GDP growth rate associated with the month’s PMI. That is a model-based relationship, not an already published result for October GDP. This article therefore assesses the direction of manufacturing conditions without treating the PMI as a measure of actual output growth.¹²

Source notes

1. Published November 2, 2026; data period: October 2026 · October 2026 ISM® Manufacturing PMI® Report · Institute for Supply Management. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Published November 2, 2026, at 10:00 ET; data period: October 2026 · Manufacturing PMI® at 55.5%; October 2026 ISM® Manufacturing PMI® Report · Institute for Supply Management release archived by PR Newswire. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴