GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — West Michigan’s factory economy is still expanding, but the latest reading from Grand Valley State University economist Brian Long shows the climb has cooled while industrial prices keep ripping higher.
Long’s October note on the West Michigan Business Confidence index called current conditions only marginally positive even as the longer-term confidence measure improved for the month. He flagged industrial inflation as the sore spot, saying big-ticket inputs such as steel, copper and aluminum are surging inside an already elevated regional price index.
That price pressure lines up with Long’s recent Seidman College surveys of area purchasing managers, which have stayed above the growth line for months even as the pace slowed. In the September snapshot he publishes through GVSU, the new-orders index fell 12 points yet remained positive, production eased three points, and he described the industrial price index as the highest since the COVID-19 crunch.
Long splits the broader economy into two tracks: households with strong retirement accounts and other assets keep spending, while families carrying credit-card or student debt feel left behind. National purchasing-manager surveys he tracks also stay positive, helped in part by heavier defense buying overseas that tightens metals markets for manufacturers here.
Office furniture and auto-parts employers — staples of the West Michigan industrial base — are still rewriting their playbooks around tariffs and uncertainty, Long said in the GVSU wrap. Diverse smaller industries have helped keep local unemployment below statewide averages even when the biggest plants feel the squeeze.
Section: More Lansing MI business news
Filed under: Lansing MI Business News
