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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes conditions in the U.S. banking system have “improved significantly,” though he acknowledges lending for residential mortgages and for small business owners remains challenging.
In remarks prepared for a speech May 10 at the 48th Annual Conference on Bank Structure and Competition in Chicago, Bernanke said several key measures of systemic risk have improved in recent months and are now well below their levels during the financial crisis. Banks have made considerable progress in repairing their balance sheets, and overall, the sector has substantially improved its liquidity, he said.
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Private companies are too nervous about the future to ramp up hiring, according to a new Sageworks Inc. survey of accountants, bankers and other financial professionals who work closely with these firms. About 32 percent of financial professionals in the survey said their clients aren’t hiring because they are concerned about the economy in general, while another 22 percent said private companies have become more risk averse because of lingering anxiety from the last recession. [more]
The U.S. unemployment rate dipped in April to 8.1 percent from 8.2 percent in March, but fewer-than-expected jobs were added. “The unemployment rate is not materially changing, which is disappointing since privately held companies continue to grow their sales and are generally the engine of job growth,” said Brian Hamilton, CEO of financial information company Sageworks Inc. [more]
New data from Sageworks, a financial information company, shows that privately held companies in the United States saw average sales growth of 8.3 percent in the 12-month period ending in April 2012. That’s up slightly from the 2011 growth rate of around 8.2 percent, and up significantly from the low in 2009, when sales declined by an average of almost 6 percent.
Private companies drive over 50 percent of GDP, which grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter, according to the latest government data.
While private company sales and U.S. GDP have been growing consecutively for over two years, another important economic indicator, the national unemployment rate, no... [more]
Cash flow forecasts, the vital estimates of how much cash your business will have in order to continuing operating, are notoriously tricky because of the many variables involved. Even so, accountants and other financial experts say there are several steps you can take to improve their accuracy. These include being conservative, being aware of common pitfalls and updating your forecasts frequently. [more]
Privately held companies have a huge impact on the U.S. economy, and new data from Sageworks Inc., a financial information company, shows that sales and margin performance through the recession and so far in the recovery has varied, depending on the size of the company. Data showed that firms with the highest annual revenues in the Sageworks database have seen the sharpest rebound in sales since 2009. Meanwhile, the very smallest firms have seen the biggest improvement in net profit margin since 2009. [more]
Privately owned hotels have weathered a difficult recession and are back on a profitable path.
The industry posted positive net profit margins in 2011 for the first time in three years, and sales increased about 8 percent, according to a financial statement analysis of privately owned hotels by Sageworks, a financial information company. Growth in average revenue per available room, or revPAR, and ongoing expense control seem to have contributed.
The sales growth isn’t dramatically higher than the 5 percent increase hotels saw in 2010, but it’s a continued improvement from the 6 percent decline in 2009 among the hotels analyzed by Sageworks.
“While hotels saw occupancy... [more]
Experts say cash flow forecasts can be tripped up by several common items that business owners and financial managers might overlook. Generally, these can be blamed on two factors: omission or over-optimism. [more]
Sageworks collects data on the financial performance of private companies, but why do private companies matter? Out of the 27 million businesses in America, only about 6,200 are publicly traded on the major New York exchanges. The rest are privately held. [more]
Last week's jobs report showed that fewer-than-expected positions were added in March, stoking concern that the economy isn’t growing fast enough. But several industries that have driven a lot of the hiring over the last year continued to add workers last month.
Who’s been hiring, and which industries have the kind of business fundamentals that could pave the way for adding more jobs?
Manufacturing, health care and food services and drinking places added jobs in March, continuing trends that have helped unemployment rates in related sectors decline since the start of the year, according to data from the Department of Labor. Aerospace manufacturer Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) and r... [more]
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