For the third time in four months, orders for durable goods excluding transportation rose, indicating that U.S. manufacturing will help maintain the recovery.

In total, new orders of manufactured durable goods in May decreased $2.2 billion or 1.1 percent, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report. But that decrease, which followed five consecutive monthly increases, including a 3 percent increase in April, was due mostly to a $3.5 billion decrease in transportation equipment and a $3 billion decrease in nondefense aircraft and parts.

Excluding transportation equipment, new orders of manufactured durable goods increased 0.9 percent.

“Profit growth has been very strong, and that’s giving firms both the means and incentive to invest,” Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, told Bloomberg. Manufacturing “is really powering the recovery at this time.”

Manufacturing is powering the economy because consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, is still being held in check by high unemployment numbers.

But new statistics from the U.S. Labor Department showed that the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits declined last week by 19,000 to 457,000, pointing to a recovery in the labor market that is taking time to develop.

Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of construction equipment, is feeling exceptionally positive about the future of the U.S. economy. The company is forecasting a rise in revenues of 25 percent because of a surge in demand from the mining and energy industries and from developing nations.



“We’re coming back very strongly after the recession,” James Owens, CEO of Caterpillar, told reporters after a conference. “We’ll see growth in oil, gas and coal because we need energy for these rapid-growth emerging countries that are driving the need for commodities.”