New furniture orders in August rose 9% over new orders reported in August last year, according to the most recently published survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors.

The survey is conducted each month by the accounting and consulting firm of Smith Leonard.

Partner Ken Smith said concern about tariffs persists. “The consensus of the folks we talked to is that the 10% [tariff] would definitely stick at least in the near-term, and that the 25% tariff would probably come into effect at the first of the year.”

Last year, August orders were up only 1% over August 2016 orders. The 9% increase this August followed three consecutive months of 5% increases.

About 70% of the survey participants reported increased orders in August. In addition, for the year to date, new orders remained 6% over the same period a year ago.

August 2017 year-to-date orders were also 6% ahead of the same 2016 period so this comparison is being made to pretty good numbers, Smith said.. Some 71% of the participants reported increased year-to-date orders.

Shipments in August increased 5% over August 2017 and were up 3% year to date. Last year through August, shipments were up 5% over the same period in 2016. Backlogs in August fell 4% from July as shipments in dollars exceeded orders.

Backlogs were 6% higher than August 2017 up from a 4% increase reported for July of this year.

Receivable levels were up 7% over last year, not far out of line with the 5% shipments rise Inventories were flat compared with July and up 4% from August 2017 also in line with current conditions.

The number of factory and warehouse employees held steady with July and down 2% from last year. Smith Leonard also says factory and warehouse payrolls were in line with current business.