Designated Blogger:
Lori Anderson, ISA President & CEO
David Huether, Chief Economist for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) , wrote in his Monday Economic Report e-newsletter that eight of the 10 major economic factors worsened last week, signaling that the economy is on track in the fourth quarter to post the largest decline since the 6.2 percent drop in the first quarter of 1982. As goes retail, so goes signs, so one of those 10 leading economic factors, chain store sales, was of particular interest to me, and the news wasn’t good. Huether wrote that chain store sales fell an unprecedented 2.7 percent in November, marking the biggest year-over-year drop on record back to 1969. Excluding retail behemoth Walmart, sales tumbled 7.7 percent from October.
In his newsletter, Huether also noted that the severe declines in November in the Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) indices of manufacturing and nonmanufacturing business activity, coupled with the dramatic loss of 533,000 jobs in the same time period, shows that both the depth and breadth of the recession are intensifying. The study provided hard data to back up the doom and gloom furor reported on by the media at large.
NAM’s newsletter caught my eye, not only because of the magnitude of the bad news it presented, but because Huether himself has been on my mind lately. A few weeks ago, ISA reached out to NAM for access to their in-house expertise on the economy as it pertains to manufacturers. The result of that dialogue is a new ISA webinar, The Economic Crisis – A Guide for Sign Industry Leaders. NAM’s Huether and David Williamson, principal of The Visual Information Group LLC, will collaborate December 18 to provide sign companies, suppliers and distributors a no holds barred look at what the economic turmoil means for our industry.
During the hour and a half session, Huether and Williamson will cut through the clutter of soundbytes about job losses, the credit crunch and the bailout and will clarify the economic implications for small manufacturers. Not only will these two leading experts present an inside look at the economic indicators sign manufacturers should watch for in the coming year, but they will be taking questions from callers who want personalized feedback on their individual situation.
At the risk of sounding like a marketing shill I ask, where else can sign companies turn for a candid, fact-based look at the financial crisis as it pertains specifically to our industry?
Think about it. Then register for ISA's economic webinar.