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According to a survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors, conducted by Smith Leonard, new orders in September 2011 rose 12 percent over September 2010 orders and are up 13 percent from August 2011.
The Furniture Insights survey shows year-to-date, new orders are up 6 percent in 2011 over the first nine months of last year. Smith Leonard noted that many manufacturers have introduced some price increases, which may have impacted the percentage increase in orders.
Furniture shipments for September were 6 percent higher than September 2010 and also 6 percent higher than August. Year-to-date, shipments are 3 percent higher than in the previous year.
The number of factory and warehouse employees in September was even with August, but dropped 1 percent from September 2010. Factory and warehouse payrolls were up 8 percent from August and up 10 percent from September 2010. The survey says the increased payroll numbers mean employees are getting more hours this year than last, since the number of employees remained relatively flat compared to last year.
The full Furniture Insights survey can be viewed at http://www.smithleonardcpas.com/pdf/fi_nov_2011.pdf.