The nation’s industrial output experienced the biggest increase in a year in November, led primarily by utility companies making big profits during the recent cold temperatures across the country.
According to the Federal Reserve, industrial production increased by 1.1% in November, which is the biggest increase since November 2012. Compared to November 2012, production is up 3.2%.
The news is the latest in a string of positive news about the nation’s economy as 2013 draws to a close. Those have included the lowest unemployment rate in five years, increasing housing prices, gains on the stock market and a more optimistic outlook from the nation’s purchasing managers, who have been buying up raw materials in anticipation of more manufacturing orders in 2014.
That’s all good news for business students, who may find themselves graduating into an economy that is better off than the one they have endured in recent years.
In related news, worker output increased between July and September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The increase – about 3% – is the fastest pace since the end of 2009. That’s a big increase from the 1.8% increase reported in June.
The Labor Department’s productivity report measures the amount of productive output per hour of work. The levels are rising, according to an article in USA Today, because economic growth has been so much stronger in the third quarter than originally estimated.
Typically, hiring productivity also means more employees are being hired.
According to USA Today, hiring has accelerated as the year has progressed and wages, another key indicator of a strengthening economy, have also started to gradually rise.
The productivity growth comes after the levels were largely flat through the first part of the year. The rates through 2012 (1.5%) and 2011 (.5%) were low, particularly in light of big gains in 2009 (3.2%) and 2010 (3.3%). However, many economists attribute that to the fact that production increased in the years directly following the end of the Great Recession, then tapered off in 2011 and 2012.
