Economy Shows Improvement. Jewelry Business Discontinuances Continue to Drop
The Great Recession Is Over
By Michelle Graff
Oct 25, 2013
Warwick, R.I.—After numbering as high as 900 a year during the recession, the number of businesses in the industry that are shutting down or consolidating keeps going down, the latest data from the Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT) shows.
According to the agency’s third quarter statistics, the number of business discontinuances among retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers in the United States dropped from 256 in the third quarter 2012 to 144 in the third quarter 2013.
“I remember the years of 2009 and 2010 where those numbers were going in a completely different direction,” said JBT President Dione Kenyon, commenting on the agency’s third quarter statistics.
Another positive indicator for the industry, which Kenyon said is recovering slowly just like the overall economy, is that the number of new companies entering the jewelry business has stabilized after dropping for years.