A number of factors – including a resurgent automobile industry and an increase in energy industry production – are pointing to an improving economy in 2014, according to predictions from Forbes.
Forbes writer Michael Evans offered a list of factors that have helped the United States experience a “slow but steady recovery” since the end of the Great Recession in 2008.
Those factors include the resurgence in the energy and automotive industries, continued innovation in the technology industry, low inflation and energy costs and low interest rates.
The nation’s economy should be growing at about a 3% rate by the second quarter of 2014, according to the Forbes article. The rate was 1.7% in the third quarter of 2013 that ended in September.
Going forward, the Forbes article listed a handful of factors that point to further growth. They include: more access to capital for promising private companies; emerging technology that will create new jobs (while perhaps destroying old ones); creation of new manufacturing jobs in America as the price to make goods in China gets closer to equaling the costs in the U.S.; and lower energy costs due to increased production in the United States.
An article from United Press International said that many involved with monitoring the economy – business leaders, economists and trade organizations – all are predicting that 2014 should be a good-but-not-great year for the economy.
The unemployment rate should drop below 7% and the economy should grow by 3%, according to the UPI article, which used information from a survey of experts at WalletHub.com. Other signs listed in the article that indicate better times ahead:
- Consensus by experts surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics that the economy’s growth should reach 3% – the often agreed-upon line between a strong and weak economy .
- A survey in December that found the nation’s purchasing and supply management executives project continued economic growth in 2014.
- A projection that interest rates will continue to stay low for consumers and businesses looking to borrow.
The Department of Labor released numbers earlier this month showing that the unemployment rate has dropped to 7%, the lowest rate in five years.
In a statement released earlier this month with the new unemployment numbers, Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said that the new numbers show “broad and steady job growth” in the American economy.
“American manufacturing remained strong with the addition of 27,000 new jobs,” Perez said. “The November employment report continues the 45-month trend of private-sector job growth, with 8.1 million new jobs created over that time.
“In the last 12 months alone, American businesses have added 2.3 million new private-sector jobs. This puts the American economy in a strong position heading into the December holiday season.”
