"Locally, our April statistics for West Michigan's industrial economy came in relatively strong.”
Brian G. Long is Director of Supply Management Research in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University.
“We still have our auto parts suppliers producing lots of auto parts and even the office furniture business, despite the work from home shakeup, has not fallen into any kind of an industry-wide recession.”
Long expects economic conditions will moderate into the summer months.
“But there's still no sign of an impending doom even if the economy does slow down some, which is what the Federal Reserve wanted to happen. They just don't want it to slow down too much.”
Long describes April’s local survey as relatively positive. But he points out the pair of national surveys for the month flattened.
“Of course, one month doesn't constitute a trend. What we may be seeing is that the rest of 2024 may be a period of slower growth. Now, that's not all bad because slow growth often, but not always, taps down inflation. Even at 3.5%, inflation is still way too high.”
Meanwhile, unemployment remains close to a historic low.