Economic Market Update

By Jason Schenker United States and global growth prospects have improved greatly since the start of the year. The rollout of COVID vaccinations has proven to be the logical antidote to the economic woes engendered by the pandemic. Yes, there are still some sectors that lag and some regions experiencing sluggish recoveries. But the labor market, the economy and the ...

By Jason Schenker Despite major challenges at the start of the year, 2021 is poised to build economic momentum in the months and quarters ahead. This is true for manufacturing and material handling, but service industries are also poised to gain ground and experience significant year-on-year growth in the months ahead as vaccinations reach scale domestically and abroad. On the ...

By Jason Schenker The outlook for 2021 is solid—especially compared to 2020. In general, the year should be one of positive growth and improvements in economic activity, even if the trend of improvements is occasionally punctuated by intermittent COVID-19 outbreaks and systemic aftershocks in industries that have experienced asymmetric negative impacts in the wake of the COVID pandemic outbreak. Buttressing ...

Looking Forward to 2021 Despite Election Uncertainty Risks BY JASON SCHENKER, PRESTIGE ECONOMICS As we begin to plan for the year ahead, we need to look back at 2020, understand current uncertainties and be prepared for how they could cast a shadow on the year ahead. Fortunately, we also need to consider upside opportunities for the economy and material handling ...

The material handling industry first came together during the conflict of the Second World War to form the organization we know as MHI. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of material handling and supply chain has again come to the fore as a necessary precondition of economic growth and a bulwark of national security. Economists and policy makers have long known ...

MHI commissioned Oxford Economics to quantify the economic impact of the material handling industry through research, analysis and impact modeling.

Cautious Optimism with a Touch of Volatility Likely for the Second Half of 2020 By Jason Schenker The economic and financial outlook for 2020 has consistently been one of volatility. And so far, we have not been disappointed. Geopolitical surprises, domestic political antagonisms, trade dynamics, oil price volatility, and other financial market surprises have already been pushing and pulling on ...

* By Jason Schenker * 2018 was a big year and optimism from 2018 carried over into the start of 2019. Then tax cut tailwinds faded against a larger-than-expected trade war between the United States and China. And 2019 weakened. These dynamics of disappointment were most pronounced for the global economy. But weakness in U.S. business investment and U.S. manufacturing played ...

MHI recently released, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, a new report, “Handling the US Economy: The Economic Impact of the Material Handling Industry.” This report explores the relationship between material handling and wider economy of the supply chain, finding that “the economic contribution of this industry extends far beyond the locations where [equipment]is manufactured… or designed.” Material handling firms are ...

An Outlook With Risk              * By Jason Schenker, Prestige Economics * Economic risks were high going into 2019. And the outlook for 2020 presents further risks. On the upside, monetary-policy hawkishness has vanished, and the U.S. economy is in a better place than many other economies. But global economic risks abound even though U.S.-Chinese trade relations have cooled off significantly ...