As we head into the new year, it looks as if the numbers for manufacturing all over the world and down and steady—showing no sign of improvement and boding poorly for global economies. The downward shift is especially apparent in several key manufacturing areas, such as the euro zone and Asia, a central manufacturing area for the global economy.

The dark numbers reported in Monday’s purchasing manager’s indexes (PMIs), an index of economic indicators in the manufacturing and commodity industry, showed serious declines in the euro zone, indicating that it will be all but impossible for European countries to avoid recession in the coming months. Some economic forecasters say that the euro zone is already in a recession and that the current state will last until the second quarter of 2012, if not longer.

The bad news was not just limited to Europe, with Asia’s PMIs also slowing and showing no potential of growth in the near future. Chinese manufacturing markets toed the line between steady numbers and deflation of output as 2011 closed, but the Chinese market ended consistently with recent months. Other Asian countries, such as South Korea, did not fair so well—that country’s manufacturing shrunk to it’s lowest in the last few years.

Although the rest of the world seems to be lowering its manufacturing output as we head into 2012, United States PMIs are optimistic, showing slight upturns consistently through that last few months. Even though the US market has been volatile, American manufacturing has shown itself to be the most stable amongst international competitors, a good sign of recovery for the American economy in a time of global economic turmoil. With holiday sales of consumer goods up since previous years, the U.S. has shown other signs of a strong and recovering economy as we head into 2012.