Manufacturing employment rose by 13,000 in January, and nonfarm payrolls increased a surprisingly strong 467,000, well above consensus estimates. The unemployment rate edged up from 3.9% to 4.0%, with the labor force participation rate rising from 61.9% to 62.2%, the best since March 2020. Average hourly earnings for production workers in manufacturing rose 5.2% year-over-year [...]

Join us March 15th for our first workshop on Robots/cobots and 3-D printing…Think outside the Box More robots than ever before joined the workforce in 2021, and many more are poised to join in 2022, according to Reuters (subscription). What’s happening: “Companies across North America laid out more than $2 billion for almost 40,000 robots [...]

There were 856,000 manufacturing job openings in December, inching up from 853,000 in November but down from a record 955,000 in October,” said Moutray. “More importantly, it was the ninth straight month with openings that have exceeded 800,000, averaging 883,000 over that time frame…. Overall, job postings remain well above pre-pandemic levels, as companies ramp [...]

The U.S. economy jumped 6.9% at the annual rate in the fourth quarter. Real GDP growth was buoyed by very strong increases in spending on business inventories and services. The data also show negative impacts from ongoing supply chain disruptions and the spread of the omicron virus, with weaker-than-desired spending on consumer goods and business [...]

Private manufacturing wages and salaries rose 1.0% in the fourth quarter. That increase translated into 4.1% growth over the past 12 months, the fastest pace in the history of the data series, which dates to the beginning of 2001. For all private-sector employees, wages and salaries increased 1.2% in the fourth quarter, with a record [...]

The America Competes Act (section-by-section summary) was introduced Tuesday and could be considered in the House as soon as next week. The legislation is the House companion bill to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), which was approved by the Senate last year with NAM support. The House of Representatives unveiled a bill yesterday [...]

On January 19th Regional Administrator Mike Vlacich, and Mark Hayward spoke to the Rhode Island Society of CPA’s National Tax Conference.  At the conference SBA’s 504 team presented an overall comprehensive program about how 504’s benefit small business and the ease of accomplishing that goal.  Attached is the presentation deck that was used.  SBA 504 [...]

"The supply chain and economic disruptions facing American families and the manufacturing industry are driven in part by the severe worker shortage and by the serious chip shortage,” said Timmons. “Today, the White House has announced promising developments on both fronts, and we will work with the administration and Congress to build on this progress [...]

Manufacturing production declined 0.3% in December, pulling back from November’s 0.6% increase, which was the best level since December 2018. Manufacturers have been challenged by supply chain bottlenecks, workforce shortages, rising production costs and, more recently, the spread of the omicron variant. Manufacturing capacity utilization edged down from 77.2% in November, also the strongest since [...]

Manufacturers in the United States are working robustly with the Biden administration and Congress to open markets, enforce trade agreements and address challenges overseas and ensure trade certainty and competitiveness, taking actions that include the following: Continuing to underscore the need for a robust, comprehensive U.S. strategy to address market-distorting economic behaviors by China, while [...]