After three months of growth, Nebraska’s Leading Economic Indicator turned downward in November.
The decrease, of 0.59 percent, may signal a slowdown this spring, said economist Eric Thompson, director of UNL’s Bureau of Business Research.
“Changes in the value of the (indicator) in recent months suggest moderate growth in the Nebraska economy during the first quarter of 2014 but that growth will slow during the second quarter,” Thompson said.
The Leading Economic Indicator for Nebraska is a composite of six components that predict future economic growth: single-family building permits, airline passenger counts, initial unemployment claims, manufacturing hours, the value of the U.S. dollar, and business expectations reported in the Survey of Nebraska Businesses.
The indicator had shown solid growth in August and September and weak growth in October.
In November, airline passenger counts and manufacturing hours increased, but there also was a rise in initial unemployment claims and a drop in building permits for single-family homes. Respondents to the Survey of Nebraska Business projected a decline in sales over the next six months.
The full Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators report and a Technical Report describing the indicators are available at the UNL College of Business Administration website, http://www.cba.unl.edu.
