“Regrettably our statistics for this month are down again but not down nearly enough to where we are thinking about sliding off a cliff.”
Brian G. Long is Director of Supply Chain Management Research in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University. He explains business planners are trying to assess a fluid economic landscape.
“So, as a consequence, expansion plans and new hire plans have often been put on hold.”
Long calls January a “back to work” month. He suspects data collected from the first month of the new year should provide clues for what direction the economy is heading in 2026. There are trends. Michigan’s December Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicates unemployment continues to rise.
“We know unemployment rates in West Michigan have been increasing significantly over the last 18 months.”
And inflation remains elevated at 2.7%. But buried within the report, a vital statistic.
“Shelter is what the BLS calls the cost of buying or renting a home, and together the cost of owning and maintaining a home is 40% of the whole Consumer Price Index. Well, the shelter component this month posted at 3.0, down sharply from 3.6. Do the math. If the shelter component continues to fall, the entire CPI will fall with it.”
Suggesting falling consumer prices.
