Plus: Small Biz Spending Rises, Private Sector Adds Jobs and U.S. Workholding Shipments Increase.

Small Biz Owners Plan to Boost Capital Spending But Delay Hiring
The majority of small-business owners across the United States are more optimistic about their business prospects and plan to increase their capital spending rates, but lingering concerns about the overall U.S. economy are likely to delay future hiring, according to the latest biannual PNC Economic Outlook.

The survey, which gauges the sentiments of small- and medium-sized business owners, found that 63 percent of small-business owners nationwide now expect to boost their capital spending, up from less than 50 percent in the spring, although only 22 percent plan to hire full-time employees in the six months. One in 10 respondents hired or plan to hire qualified employees due to tax credits offered under the HIRE Act.

“Until we see a solid pattern of small business hiring and investments re-established, the economic recovery will be a bumpy road, but not another ride over a cliff,” Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for the PNC Financial Services Group, said in an announcement of the results. “These findings support PNC’s view that the economy will remain transitional for the rest of 2010 and into the first half of 2011 — with weak but persistent ‘half-speed’ real GDP and job gains.”

The general outlook for small- and medium-sized business owners has also improved, with 20 percent of owners reporting pessimism about their company’s prospects for the next six months, down from 23 percent in spring 2010. Meanwhile, 20 percent of owners are optimistic about the next six months.

Despite the improving outlook for individual companies, respondents remain gloomy about the U.S. economy, with 58 percent reporting pessimism about national economic prospects over the next six months. Among the top challenges cited by small-business owners are weakened sales (34 percent) and concern about government policies (21 percent).

Manufacturers and Retailers Unite on Item-Level RFID
A group of major North American retailers, manufacturers, suppliers, industry associations and technology providers last week introduced a broad-based initiative to guide the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in retail. The new Item Level RFID Initiative will create a strategy and a framework for industry engagement, education, adoption and responsible use of Electronic Product Code-enabled RFID technology compatible with other segments of the supply chain and the retail industry.

Members of the initiative will spend the coming months developing measurable value propositions for retailers, suppliers and other stakeholders, as well as standards-based guidelines and business practices to support industry roll-out and ensure that the technology works effectively across multiple technology platforms.

The initiative, which will initially focus on the apparel sector, “could change the way the retail industry does business — and could lead to the biggest supply-chain transformation since the introduction of the bar code,” according to Joseph Andraski, president and CEO of Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions (VICS), which is among standards organizations GS1 Canada and GS1 US guiding the initiative.

Other members of the initiative include the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Advisory Board members include representatives of Conair, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Dillard’s, Jockey, Levi Strauss, Macy’s and the Jones Group.

Based on current sales rates, the RFID market is projected to grow by approximately $600 million this year, rising from $5.03 billion in 2009 to $5.63 billion in 2010, according to a recent report from tech consulting firm IDTechEx. Expanding RFID applications in the retail market are driving a significant portion of the growth, with apparel tagging alone requiring 300 million RFID labels in 2010. In total, IDTechEx estimates that 2.31 billion tags will be sold this year, up from 1.98 billion in 2009.

U.S. Private Sector Adding Jobs
The U.S. economy added 151,000 non-farm jobs in October, the largest gain in job creation since May, according to the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday. However, the national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.6 percent for the third consecutive month, though earlier months’ losses were revised downward in the new data.

Job gains last month exceeded forecasts, as analysts polled by MarketWatch had anticipated total non-farm payrolls to rise by only 70,000 jobs and expected the national unemployment rate to inch upward to 9.7 percent. Since December 2009, non-farm payroll employment has risen by 874,000.

The October gain in job creation was largely due to new jobs added to the mining industry and a number of service-providing industries, including health care and retail trade. Employment in manufacturing dipped slightly, shedding 7,000 jobs last month, and has remained relatively flat since May despite adding 134,000 jobs in the first five months of the year. Employment in the construction, wholesale trade, transportation, information and financial industries remained stagnant in October.

“The jobless rate has not fallen substantially this year, largely because employers have barely added enough workers to absorb the people just entering the labor force,” the New York Times reports. “And even if the economy suddenly expands and starts adding 208,000 jobs a month — as it did in its best year this decade — it would still take 12 years to close the gap between the growing number of American workers and the total available jobs…”

U.S. Workholding Shipments Increase in Q3
At $58.3 million for the third quarter of 2010, shipments of workholding equipment were up 47.1 percent from the same quarter last year, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology’s (AMT) Advanced Workholding Technology (AWT) Group. Workholding equipment shipments within the United States totaled $48.6 million, while exports amounted to $9.7 million.

The AWT report shows that domestic shipments of workholding equipment — including chucks, jaws, collets, vises, fixtures and more — rose 5.2 percent and U.S. exports increased 16.8 percent from the second quarter of 2010.

In regional terms, the AWT report shows that Q3 2010 workholding shipments to the Midwest increased 0.4 percent from Q2 and this region remained the largest domestic destination with 40.9 percent of total domestic shipments. The Central states saw a 0.4 percent increase in shipments, giving that region an 18.8 percent share of domestic purchases. Shipments to the Northeast states dropped 0.4 percent from Q2 to Q3, leaving the region with 16 percent of domestic shipments. In the South, Q3 shipments increased 0.2 percent to 14 percent of consumption for the period. Finally, shipments to the Western states fell 0.6 percent from Q2 to Q3, leaving the region with a 10.4 percent share of the domestic market.