Yesterday the final September 2009 Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales data was released.

Sales down -0.3%, Inventories down -0.4% from August 2009 and the inventory to sales ratio is now 1.32, the same as a year ago.

Manufacturers sales are up 0.8% and inventories are down -1.0%, but retailers are down -2.6% while inventories are up 0.6%. That's not a good sign from retailers.

So, we have a flat line in the inventory to sales ratio. Why is this important? Because until inventories are depleted, odds are businesses will not hire new workers.

Note the recession started in December 2007 and you can see how far the away the inventories to sales ratio number is from that time period.

Not good news for job creation.