U.S. orders for durable goods sank sharply for a second straight month in April as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the manufacturing industry, Bloomberg reported.

Bookings for the goods, meant to last at least three years, decreased 17.2 percent, the most since August 2014, after a revised 16.6 percent decline in March, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 19 percent decrease.

Revised data on Thursday from the Commerce Department showed first-quarter gross domestic product shrank at an annualized 5 percent pace as consumer spending and business investment dropped sharply.

Factories in the last two months bore the brunt of the sharp cutback in demand amid the nationwide lockdown. While states have begun letting business reopen, manufacturing will be slow to recover as fewer people shop and businesses rein in capital spending projects.

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