Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 55. Sunrise is 6:59 and sunset 6:25 PM for 11h 25m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 40.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1780, American militia defeat royalist irregulars led by British major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina, often regarded as the turning point in the war’s Southern theater.
There are times when “less pessimistic” is enough. Joe Schulz reports Wisconsin manufacturers less pessimistic about the economy this year, but still face stresses (‘Workforce tops list of concerns from manufacturers, as inflation and supply chain worries lessen’):
Wisconsin manufacturers are less pessimistic about the economy than last year and remain optimistic about their companies, but workforce challenges continue to be a top concern even as inflation and supply chain worries lessen.
That’s according to a new report from the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing & Productivity, a public-private partnership that connects companies with resources. It surveyed 415 manufacturing executives from across the state and also took input from focus groups in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Menomonie.
Manufacturing stakeholders on Wednesday discussed the results at Titletown Tech in Green Bay. The survey found that 51 percent of manufacturers believe the business climate is headed in the right direction, but it’s not quite back to levels seen in 2021. That year, 55 percent said it was going in the right direction.
The survey shows that manufacturers are split regarding opinions on the health of Wisconsin’s economy. Twenty-three percent believe the state economy is growing; 36 percent say it’s mostly flat; 26 percent think it’s slowing down; and 12 percent believe it’s in a recession.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, America’s gross domestic product grew in the first two quarters of 2023 with annualized growth around 2 percent each quarter. After some forecasters predicted recessions in 2022 and 2023, forecasters at UCLA are predicting 2024 will be a weak year for economic growth, before rebounding in 2025.