NEWS RELEASES
Warning Signs Of RV Industry Slowdown
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through The South Bend Tribune's website.
The South Bend Tribune, an Indiana news outlet, reports that the RV industry is showing signs of weakening, citing a number of factors that may indicate future declines. Among them: slipping RV shipments in every month since May 2018, with the exception of July, including a 15.4 percent downturn in February 2019, compared to a year earlier; an uptick in unemployment rates, 3.4 percent in Feb. 2019 compared to Feb. 2018; weakening RV sales in the second half of 2018; and discounts and incentives appearing in the RV marketplace to help move products. Elkhart County’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate remains below the average for the state and the nation, but has been steadily increasing since October, with overtime shifts being cut across the industry and reports of reduced work weeks and weeklong unpaid furloughs. Food banks in the Indiana counties of St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties have seen an uptick in new families applying for aid in recent weeks.
Economic experts frequently cite the RV industry as a leading economic indicator in predicting recessions. “The prevailing sentiment is that we’re seeing an inventory adjustment and that sales will pick up as inventory works its way out of the system,” Kevin Broom, a spokesman for the RV Industry Association, told the Tribune. “Most are predicting that business will pick up again in May or June.” However, if that doesn’t happen, the possibility is that the overall U.S. economy could begin moving into a recession next year. Statistics suggest that an annual slide of 5 percent or more in the RV industry is followed the next year by a recession.
Read the Tribune’s full article here.