September could be remembered as the beginning of months of bad news in the manufacturing sector, after the PMI hit its lowest level in nearly seven years—43.5%.

Issues in the financial sector, the cyclical end to a major global economic growth period and natural disasters all pushed the index to its lowest level since October 2001.

The trend downward has been showing up in new orders, a leading indicator, for several months. September's new orders index came in at 38.3%, down 9.5 percentage points from August, the tenth consecutive month of contraction.