July 2018 Commercial Newsletter
Download Complete Newsletter | Volume 6, Issue 7
Is It Time for a 2018 Midyear Checkup?
Here we are right now in the middle of 2018, and how are you doing at accomplishing your goals for the entire year? With this in mind, it may be wise to check in and see how you’re doing, to see if you’re still on track towards accomplishing all that you want in 2018.
One of the interesting things about beginning each new year, is that it’s often the time for setting goals for the entire year.
But then sometimes the goals get forgotten, we don’t check in with ourselves during the year to see how we’re doing in accomplishing them, and then much or all of the year can go by without any great change happening. We’ve become locked into our pattern of doing things the same way that we’ve been doing them before, and it can oftentimes just be difficult to break the pattern.
So what are the goals that are still important for you to accomplish within 2018? Is there a lease, a building purchase or sale, or the refinancing of a building that you need to focus on? With interest rates reversing and now being on the upswing, the longer that you wait to get a new loan, the more expensive your monthly payments will likely be. It took decades for the pattern of falling interest rates to finally reverse itself, so now that we’re seeing rates getting higher again, it’s unlikely that this new pattern will reverse itself anytime soon.
In addition, what are the goals that you still want to accomplish within your business? Did you set goals for yourself in your business at the beginning of 2018, and if so, how are you doing at accomplishing them?
With this in mind, do you now need to create an updated list of goals to accomplish between now and the end of 2018, while taking into consideration how this first half of the year has gone for you?
If we don’t focus on achieving our goals and in doing the activities that will accomplish them, it becomes very easy for us to then get reactive instead of proactive, and then we can constantly feel busy, but we’re not busy doing the important activities that will have us accomplish our goals. So it’s very, very important for us to get clear on what activities we must focus on that will have us accomplish our goals for the year.
Keeping this in mind, a good idea could be to write down the most important activities for you to remain focused on doing during the rest of the year, in order for you to then achieve your goals for the year. Then look at the list for just 30 seconds or so every day. This will help you to stay focused on doing the activities that are truly important to you, when so many other distractions are constantly coming at you every day.
Strong Job Market Draws More Workers into the Workforce, As Weekly Earnings Increase
JULY 09, 2018|CHRISTINE COOPER CoStar
Employment Gains in June Easily Beat Expectations by Adding 213,000 Net New Positions
The national labor market surged past its 93rd month of uninterrupted jobs gains in June, with employers easily beating expectations by adding 213,000 net new positions, according to Friday’s national employment report.
Revisions to April and May numbers added 37,000 jobs to what was previously reported, bringing the three-month average job gain to 211,000 per month, more than enough to absorb the growing population. Almost 18.5 million jobs have been added since October 2010, a monthly average of 199,000.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4 percent from its post-recession low of 3.8 percent in May, largely due to the influx of workers into the labor market, not all of whom found a job.
Jobs were added across most sectors. Education and health services added 54,000 positions, of which 18,900 were in private sector schools, 25,200 in hospitals and medical offices, and 9,500 in social assistance, such as in-home elderly care.
The large professional and business services sector added 50,000 positions, with 25,100 in higher-paying professional and technical services, and 19,200 added in lower-paying administrative and waste services.
About 36,000 jobs were added in the manufacturing sector, most of which were in durable goods industries, including fabricated metal products, machinery, electronic instruments, automobiles and computer and electronics products. These industries are likely to feel the impacts of tariffs on aluminum and steel imports implemented on June 1 as their costs increase.
Additional proposed tariffs on automobile imports, along with retaliatory trade measures threatened by the U.S.’s trading partners, have the potential to shake up many domestic manufacturing industries, altering their supply chains and cost structures as well as impacting their location and investment decisions. How well manufacturing employment fares will be worth watching going forward.
In spite of solid consumer confidence and healthy retail sales, retailer firms shed 21,600 positions, taking back almost all of this sector’s May gains. Big box retailers such as supercenters and warehouse stores, as well as electronics and appliance stores accounted for most of the decline. Grocery stores also contracted, while clothing stores and automobile dealerships added positions.
Additional proposed tariffs on automobile imports, along with retaliatory trade measures threatened by the U.S.’s trading partners, have the potential to shake up many domestic manufacturing industries, altering their supply chains and cost structures as well as impacting their location and investment decisions. How well manufacturing employment fares will be worth watching going forward.
In spite of solid consumer confidence and healthy retail sales, retailer firms shed 21,600 positions, taking back almost all of this sector’s May gains. Big box retailers such as supercenters and warehouse stores, as well as electronics and appliance stores accounted for most of the decline. Grocery stores also contracted, while clothing stores and automobile dealerships added positions.
E-commerce is playing a role in the changing structure of the retail industry, but impacting other jobs as well, as truck transportation to warehouses and local delivery services added workers. Employment at non-store retailers, such as Amazon, also grew in June.
The economy’s ability to generate jobs is drawing people back into the labor market. Participation rates are rising, albeit slowly, and not to pre-recession levels, implying there’s more room to improve. Overall there remain 5.3 million workers who would like a job but are not in the labor force because they have stopped looking for a job. Another 4.7 million are working part-time but still hoping for full-time work.
With what still seems to be persistent slack in the labor market, employers across many industries may not need to offer higher wages to attract workers. Wages are picking up slowly though, with growth in average weekly earnings (combining the hours worked per week with hourly wages) reaching 3 percent. Although not much better than current inflation (measured by the consumer price index), its upward trajectory is heartening.
As has been frequently noted, the job market over the past few years has been one where earnings are healthy in a handful of industries that have added, in the aggregate, fewer jobs, such as mining, financial services and information. Conversely, earnings have been weak in sectors that have added, in the aggregate, many more jobs, such as food services and social assistance, leaving average earnings growth overall rather uninspiring.
On the positive side, without real signs of overheating, the Federal Reserve has plenty of room to follow its course of measured, predictable rate increases and balance sheet normalization, for now