autonomous robots assemble an x model suv at the bmw manufacturing facility in greer south carolina us november 4 2019 reuterscharles mostollerfile photo washington sept 1reuters  us manufacturing grew steadily in august as employment and new orders rebounded while a further easing in price pressures strengthened expectations that inflation has likely peaked the institute for supply management ism said on thursday that its manufacturing pmi was at 528 last month unchanged from july a reading above 50 indicates expansion in manufacturing which accounts for 119 of the us economy economists polled by reuters had forecast the index falling to 520 manufacturing is showing resilience despite a shift in spending back to services as well as an ebb in business confidence amid rapidly rising interest rates which have increased the risk of a recession the federal reserve has hiked its policy rate by 225 basis points since march to tame inflation the ism surveys forwardlooking new orders subindex rebounded to 513 last month from a reading of 480 in july that ended two straight monthly decreases order backlogs rose suggesting factories will continue humming for a while the continued growth in manufacturing is more evidence that the economy was not in recession despite gross domestic product contracting in the first half of the year sharp swings in inventories and the trade deficit tied to snarled global supply chains have been largely blamed for the decline in output which has not been corroborated by the labor market supply chains are gradually improving the isms measure of supplier deliveries slipped to 551 from 552 in july a reading above 50 indicates slower deliveries to factories that resulted in inflation at the factory gate subsiding further a measure of prices paid by manufacturers dropped to 525 the lowest reading since june 2020 from 600 in july the moderation is being largely driven by a sharp retreat in commodity prices annual consumer and producer inflation decelerated in july raising cautious optimism that the worst of the price increases was likely behind the ism surveys measure of factory employment jumped to a fivemonth high of 542 from 499 in july which bodes well for augusts employment report but manufacturing payrolls in the governments closely watched employment report continued grow even as the ism employment gauge contracted according to a reuters survey of economists manufacturing employment likely increased by 20000 jobs last month after rising 30000 in july overall nonfarm payrolls are forecast to have grown by 300000 jobs after surging 528000 in july demand for labor remains strong despite tighter monetary policy and financial conditions as well as recession jitters there were 112 million unfilled jobs across the economy at the end of july with two job openings for every unemployed worker