(Editor: Leona)

U.S. furniture factories posted the second biggest orders gain of the year in October, rising 12% from the same month a year earlier, Smith Leonard reported.

The accounting and consulting firm said its monthly survey of factories showed that October trailed only April, when the early timing of the spring High Point Market was probably a factor in that month’s 13% gain.

For the year through October, orders were up 6% from 2013. Shipments, which tend to lag orders, were up 7% in October and up 6% for the year.

“We heard several exhibitors at (the High Point) Market say that order writing was the best it had been in some years, so that may have had some positive impact on October orders,” Ken Smith, managing partner of Smith Leonard, said in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter.

About 72% of the respondents to the factory survey reported that orders for the year to date were up from a year earlier.

“Overall, we would say that business has been pretty good for most in 2014, and from what we have heard, business has remained at pretty good levels on up through November and December. In fact, especially on the upholstery side of the industry, finding employees has become an issue, both at the higher and promotional ends of the business,” Smith said.

He said he hoped the employment situation “will not stretch out lead times to a point of disappointment for consumers.”