West Michigan’s economy continued its positive growth pattern in October. WGVU breaks down the numbers in the recent Supply Management Research survey.
Month after month the trend for the west Michigan economy remains the same. Brian G. Long, director of Supply Management Research in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University describes it as “positive growth.”
“This is about as good as it’s going to get as far as the business cycle is concerned.” Long says, "If we continue this way to 2019, it will be the longest post-war recovery in history without sliding into another recession."
“The counties and cities in our area have reached that magical number that we call full employment. The numbers are low and they bounce around at this level a little bit.”
Nationally, the unemployment rate is at 4.1 percent. If it continues to fall to 3.8 percent it would match a 20 year low. Long points to increased manufacturing production and the need for additional factory jobs as reasons.
“What the unemployment number does not show is what the pay level is of these jobs. And of course that’s been a big concern for some people because they see unemployment going down but they don’t see the pay level going up as rapidly as it has as we’ve pulled out of other recessions.”
Still, Long explains there’s “improvement in optimism about future trading among manufacturers.”
Patrick Center, WGVU News.