I reported yesterday on the economic growth numbers – moods are certainly brighter. Quoting the Washington Post:
The outlook for the global economy in recent weeks has unexpectedly brightened, with the United States, Europe, and China all outperforming expectations and avoiding — at least for now — some predicted stumbles.
American employers continue to hire at a steady clip while the latest European manufacturing gauges signal expansion and Chinese consumers are spending again.
Much of the improvement in the world’s three main economic engines, however, is more the result of disasters averted rather than any new boom.
And, how about this from Axios:
A major undercurrent of last year’s entire economic policy debate has been this question: Is compensation for American workers spiraling upward because of a tight job market destined to fuel inflation? New data points decidedly toward “no.” The Employment Cost Index, the gold standard of measures of worker compensation (more on why below), rose 1% in the final three months of 2022, below the 1.2% analysts had expected. Growth in total compensation had its recent peak in the first quarter of 2022, at 1.4%, then rose more slowly in each subsequent quarter. Put differently; compensation rose at a 5.8% annual rate in the first three months of 2022 and a 4% annual rate in the final three months of the year.
Some other good data – ADP’s jobs report says Private employers added 235,000 jobs in December. Job resurgence was seen in the last two months of 2022, led by consumer-facing service industries. Hiring was strong across small and medium establishments while large establishments saw a drop in employment of 151,000 jobs.
Why do we care?
The mood is getting lighter! I want to highlight how news often struggles to report good news, so we should notice when it happens. For those in services, the data continues to stack up – combine this data with the company creation data reported earlier this week, and there are many reasons for SMBs to be hopeful.