MY LITTLE SALESMAN Heavy Equipment

MY LITTLE SALESMAN®

2895 Chad Drive, Eugene, Oregon 97408-7345

P.O. Box 70208, Eugene, Oregon 97401-0142

PHONE 541-341-4650 • TOLL FREE 800-493-2295 • FAX 541-342-3307

that there is bad news aplenty; however, I also know that if we focus our attention towards that which is improving we can better our own situations as well. Employment, business growth, and even housing all showed areas that deserve our attention.

It seems that of late there is a continued mix of bad and good news on the economy I know First, let’s address the employment numbers that came out this month. Employment showed an overall decline of 131,000 jobs in July. That doesn’t sound good at all. However, looking deeper in the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics report there is news to be thankful for. The 131,000 jobs lost contains two numbers you should know about. First, 143,000 temporary census workers finished their work and their jobs ended. This is, of course, not great news for them; however, the second number relates to economic health and is good news to us all. Private sector employment was up 71,000 jobs. That brings the total increase in private sector jobs to 630,000 people who have moved from unemployment lines to jobs this year. Small, steady improvement is keeping us headed in the right direction.

In fact, according to the chart issued along with the U.S. B.L.S. employment report, this trend has been improving since January of 2009 when overall employment bottomed-out and began to strengthen. How does this relate to heavy equipment operation and use you ask?

Mining has slowly grown since October of 2009, posting another increase in new jobs this past month. These numbers show a steady gain in employment over last year. Mining improves in direct relation to improvement in industries that are using the raw resources provided by this sector.

Forestry and Logging have remained relatively unchanged nationally. However, Wood Products employment related to the processing of raw timber to finished goods has slowly increased for ten months.

Construction is where we continue to struggle. Our federal government has failed to create a strong infrastructure budget that would put the construction industry on stable ground. It has focused on other things and has left the majority of traditional infrastructure projects unfunded. This has lead to consequences for our industry that surpass the overall recession. If you are in the construction industry you need to urge Congress to act. To learn more about this visit www.agc.org.

The bottom line is still that the overall economy is improving. Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing sectors continue to post gains. The overall economy is growing in the hands of private industry and continues to show resilience. Hiring is up, wages are up, hours worked are up, and consumer spending is up now for three months in a row. These indicators prove the economy is getting stronger. All four of these areas contradict the news that the economy is getting worse.

Two additional areas to watch that support an improving heavy equipment economy relate directly to housing.

Last month, the number of Americans who missed a mortgage payment dropped by nearly 40% from the previous month. The number of homes going into foreclosure dropped as well. In fact, homes going into default dropped by 28% from last year’s numbers. These last few items bear watching because if they continue to improve, then housing and construction will improve as well.

I encourage you to continue to take action in your own lives. Work hard towards your dreams and make them real. There is need for expansion that is leading to demand in the heavy equipment industry. Slowly things are improving. As the economy improves, continue to look to the My Little Salesman Heavy Equipment Catalog