The U.S. Census Bureau continues to roll out a backlog of overdue economic indicator reports following the 43-day government shutdown that delayed nearly all of them, which includes September’s wholesale trade report that was issued on Dec. 11.

Overall, the report showed a notable decline in September’s wholesale sales — primarily for durable goods — while August’s modest decline was revised to a decline. Meanwhile, September wholesale inventories posted a major rebound.

The wholesale trade report showed that September sales of merchant wholesalers — except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustments or seasonal variations and trading day differences, but not for price changes — were $708.2 billion, down 0.2% from August’s revised mark, and up 4.8% year-over-year. August’s figure was revised from a preliminary estimate of up 0.1% to down 0.2%.

Within wholesale sales, September durable goods sales sunk 0.4% month-over-month (+5.5% YoY), and nondurable sales ticked up 0.1% (+4.1% YoY).

September’s data coincides with new survey research from GEP and S&P Market Intelligence that showed a major pullback from U.S. manufacturers’ orders and growing spare capacity in recent months, including a sharp deceleration in November.

MDM’s 3Q25 MarketPulse Report (Premium access) 

Inventories

September’s wholesale trade inventories were valued at $911.5 billion, up 0.5% from August’s revised mark and up 1.8% year-over-year. Durable goods inventories increased 0.3% month-over-month, and nondurable increased 0.7%.

U.S. wholesale trade inventories, month-to-month % change

The September inventories-to-sales ratio for wholesalers was 1.29, edging up from August’s 1.29 and down from the 1.33 of a year earlier.

In the Store: MDM’s U.S. MRO Market Trends Report 

September Wholesale Sales & Inventory by Product Category

Here’s how seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales of durable and nondurable goods fared in September on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis across the 19 industry sectors that the Census Bureau identifies. Click on the chart for a larger version.