“It was kind of disappointing to see a sharp drop in new orders.”
Brian G. Long is director of supply chain management research in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University.
“And furthermore, our production index also took a sharp downturn as did several of our other majors.”
And Michigan now has the third highest unemployment rate in the nation.
“But our survey of the local industrial market has held fairly steady up until this past November at which time our index took the sharpest drop we’ve had since the onset of the pandemic six years ago.”
And the confidence index flipped back to negative.
“I think the navigation of all these tariffs are taking a toll on some of our people as is the news cycle which tends to be somewhat negative right now.”
Long says tariffs on Canadian products is impacting trade between Ontario and Michigan. And without agreements with Canada and China, Long expects a drag on the economy entering 2026.
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