The Tooling and Manufacturing Association has released its October report, announcing that business conditions have remained steady in the period from July-October 2004. Other findings include reports from all 114 regular member companies that order backlog has increased for 31% of the companies, remained steady for 35% and declined for 34%. According to the association's survey relase, trend factors varied across the industries. For the precision machining and special machines industries, 70% of the companies surveyed reported steadiness in employment. The companies in the plastic molding industry unanimously (100%) reported a decrease in employment. Across the board, the average toolroom workweek was 47.5 hours, an increase of 1.5 hours from July 1, 2004.