US Manufacturing was up again in December. Capping off another growth year, and setting the stage for a strong 2013. In a recent survey conducted by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), 62 percent of their survey respondents expect revenues to be greater in 2013 than in 2012. Bradley J. Holcomb, CPSM, CPSD, chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said that based on their forecasts that US Manufacturers are “optimistic about their overall business prospects for the first half of 2013, and are even more optimistic about the second half of 2013.”
With last minute legislation being passed to avert the full effect of the “fiscal cliff”, it is reasonable to expect that we will not experience another recession in 2013. The Department of Labor also reported there was reasonable job creation in December which kept unemployment flat, and showed that employers seemed willing to brush off the threat of higher taxes and government spending cuts that have been hanging over the economy in the last few months.