Middle Market Growth Is Stable at Historically High Rates
Compared to the last two reporting periods, year-over-year rates of revenue and employment growth in the U.S. middle market have not fluctuated much at all. However, the performance story is anything but ho-hum. U.S. middle market businesses sustained double-digit year-over-year growth rates throughout 2022 and they anticipate continued aggressive growth in 2023. Do these numbers represent a prolonged recovery from the events of 2020? Or has the middle market established new standards of performance? Either way, middle market leaders continue to voice concerns related to maintaining growth, finding talent with the skills needed to support their growing businesses, and absorbing increasing costs, all of which represent formidable headwinds to 2023 growth projections. While leaders indicate that they are generally confident in economic conditions, they do show declining appetite for investment and less willingness overall to immediately invest an extra dollar in the business. Expansionary activity is on par with pre-pandemic levels, but it has not surged in the same way as revenue and employment growth. As 2023 unfolds, middle market performance will continue to serve as an important leading indicator of the health of the overall U.S. economy.
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