Durable Goods Orders: March 2025

New orders for manufactured durable goods rose to $315.73B in March. This represents a 9.2% increase from the previous month and a 11.9% rise from one year ago. The latest reading was higher than the projected 2.1% monthly growth.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in March, up three consecutive months, increased $26.6 billion or 9.2 percent to $315.7 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This followed a 0.9 percent February increase. Excluding transportation, new orders were virtually unchanged. Excluding defense, new orders increased 10.4 percent. Transportation equipment, also up three consecutive months, led the increase, $26.5 billion or 27.0 percent to $124.6 billion. (Download full PDF)

Durable Goods

Durable goods refers to tangible products that can be stored or inventoried and that have an average life of at least three years. Durable goods are typically expensive and therefore tend to be purchased when there is confidence in the economy. New orders for durable goods are a leading indicator, meaning when purchases increase it typically hints at an improvement to the economy. On the flip side, when the new orders trend down it is indicating a lack of confidence in the economy.