The United States' recession may be easing off, according to a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics.
According to a survey summary, ""Key indicators—industry demand, employment, capital spending and profitability—are still declining, but the breadth of decline is narrowing. Declines still outnumber gains, but fewer firms are reporting declines and more are reporting gains.""
The survey, which has been polling national companies since the early 1980s, ""does a fabulous job of capturing what is happening in the real economy,"" Shawn DuBravac, an analyst for NABE, said.
DuBravac also said responses improved slightly since NABE's last survey in January, even though overall numbers were still negative. He added even though some factors remain negative, the rate at which the economy is decreasing has slowed.
To illustrate this phenomenon, the summary explains that the net rising index for industry demand, which is the net difference between the number of companies reporting rising demand for their products and the number reporting a decline, improved from -28 to -14.
Dennis Winters, chief of the state Department of Workforce Development's Office of Economic Advisors, said this information, though helpful for businesses, is not necessarily indicative of the economic situation in Wisconsin.
""We don't have a lot of specific numbers,"" he said. ""We see at the national level that we're still on a downward path.""
Winters added there are a few studies that agree with the findings of the NABE survey but none were significant enough to prove a trend of improved economic conditions nationally and statewide.
Because Wisconsin is not dependent on one industry, the state will face a better economic situation in the future than other states, according to Winters.
""[The economy] is pretty spotty regionally, but Wisconsin is pretty well diversified economically,"" he said.
DuBravac said though the survey points to an improvement in the economic trend, the national situation could still turn more negative in the near future.
