Monthly review of Logistics Managers Index

The Logistics Managers Index looks at the supply chain and other factors making up the logistics industry.

The key point for this month is the flatness of the overall Logistics Managers Index (LMI). The LMI overall value is 50.6, representing a flat index’s baseline. The number 50 means that things are stable.

In general, the macroeconomic picture in the U.S. was better than expected in 2023. When the economy grew by approximately 3%, unemployment was at 3.7%, and an average of 232,000 jobs were added monthly.

“Slow, steady, stable is not a bad way to do the economy,” ASU W.P. Carey professor Dale Rogers said. “Where you have lots of amplitude with big curves up and down, that’s much harder for people to deal with.”

Rogers noted that the slower and the more stable the economy behaves, the easier the predictability will be. Since the pandemic, the usage of the LMI has been extremely accurate in predicting the economy’s stability.

“Global supply chains have healed,” Rogers said. “Yes, there are political issues and some other minor things, but for the most part, things have healed, and we’re back to normal.”