The economy is growing, despite the gloom and doom emanating from a few pessimists. Take a look at the net job gains:
The first think to note is the general downward trend since early 2006. The growth of the economy is slowing down. But now focus on the last four months: the gains are increasing a bit. The bottom line: we’re not booming, but it looks like we’re on the mend from our growth slowdown.
One reason for low growth is that we’re near full employment:
With unemployment below five percent, it’s hard for the economy to grow jobs. There has been a small rebound in unemployment in the last few months, but we’re still on the tight side of labor balance.
Strategic Business Planning Implications: Don’t hunker down. Make sure you have the capacity for growth. You should still do some recession contingency planning, because there’s still some risk of downside movement, but generally, things are looking a bit better.