#185. Good News for U.S. Small Businesses
Posted on | The Agurban
The National Association of Manufacturers said the trade figures for May show continuing improvement in manufactured goods trade.
“Manufactured goods exports continued their sizzling pace,” said Frank Vargo, the NAM’s vice president for international economic affairs. “For the first five months of this year, they were up 12 percent over the comparable year-ago period.
“Coupled with a slower 4 percent rise in imports, the export performance has resulted in a further reduction in the manufactured goods trade deficit which, through May, is 11 percent smaller than last year,” said Vargo.
“Exports are keeping U.S. manufacturing afloat this year as domestic demand is very soft,” said Vargo.
To further breakdown the data, U.S. small and midsize businesses account for nearly 97 percent of U.S. exporters and most new exporters come from this segment of the economy. More than two-thirds of U.S. exporters have fewer than 20 employees.
As I’ve mentioned in the past our business of building new industrial buildings seems to be doing very well and we sure aren’t seeing a downturn from the manufacturing sector. This year we have expansion projects under construction or planned in the following industries: food processing, agriculture equipment, animal feed, furniture, metal fabrication, machinery, medical equipment, printing and building accessories. None are huge but each will create new jobs and many undoubtedly export their products. These are sure signs that this economy is doing much better than the national media would have you believe.