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This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Bachelorette.

The American economy, where to look as to what direction. We're told recession in the immediate future. We're told sticky inflation.

We're told layoffs in Silicon Valley, but Gene Marx is the small business columnist for the Guardian newspaper UK and US edition as well as our hometown newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquira and other distinguished publications.

And Gene knows where to look about the economy. It's Las Vegas.

Gene, a very good evening to my favorite story from the depths of the pandemic was you arriving in Las Vegas and measuring the economy on the basis of how long it took for rental car to show up at the front of the airport.

Now you have another measure about visitor traffic down. What does this mean about the American economy? Good evening to you, Gene.

Hi, John. Yeah, I'm going to be in Las Vegas two times this month speaking to a couple of different industry growth groups. So I'm looking forward to going there. And listen, you know, I think there's there's really good news for me, but unfortunate news for the economy.

The Las Vegas Convention Authority there tracks visitor traffic coming into, you know, into the city. And the bad news that in January visitor traffic was down 4% compared to 2019.

And that's overall visitors, but convention traffic because we all know that Las Vegas is the center of conventions in this country. It was down almost 25% compared to the same period three COVID.

And I want to make sure that we're clear on this because, you know, as you know, I do speak at a lot of different events January is a big convention time for Vegas, John, you know, it's, I mean, that's, you know, the weather is warm and it's right after the holidays and a lot of big shows go on there.

And, you know, this past January was a real, a real disappointment. And I think that's really indicative you and I were talking before we go before we went on the air about how you know Las Vegas is all about shopping, you know, I mean, whether you're spending your money at the casinos or frankly, if you're going through all the malls and the stores and whatever when you have 25% less convention traffic that has a big impact on the restaurants and stores.

Many small businesses in that city. The goodness for me that was when I go there this month of traffic is still down. That means I can wait a little bit less time for a taxi or for to check into my hotel. But that's a selfish. I'd like to see it pick up again because I'd like to see the economy pick up there as well. It's a good indicator of where things are going.

The economy is bursting at the seams when Jean is waiting and waiting and waiting and nothing happening and he's thinking he has to hitch a ride and asking, have you actually heard my order? All right, we go to another way of measuring the economy is the ISM manufacturing index. Now we can say it increased gene, but it's under 50% correct. That's the negative.

Yeah, that is correct. The ISM is the Institute of Supply Managers and there is a it's a closely watched indicator by a lot of economists because it what it is, it's an association of purchasing managers essentially and what it was they they they pulled the purchasing managers and they asked them, what do you buy it and how much you buy it and one of the profitability of your business and it is a you know it's a good indication of the manufacturing environment around the country.

And so you know when when they did their they do this every month, the January numbers so the rate of purchasing is still going down a little bit less of a downward rate than it was in the prior month, but this contraction and manufacturing genres been going on now for quite a few months.

It is a real concern about the manufacturing sector. There is good news though, the ISM besides doing a you know there are now some manufacturing purchasing managers, they also ask all the people that are in their membership that are in the service sector.

So these are business and consumer services that sector is going real strong just today. They came out and released their service you know index and that continues to grow steadily.

And what that means is that the manufacturing base in you know in the US right now is struggling and contracting so less good you're being made on the other side.

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