Word: outlook
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Beset by nationwide recession, the migration of business to the Sunbelt and the auto industry's slump, Michigan had an unemployment rate of 12.7% in October, vs. a national average of 8%. Worse is to come. The University of Michigan's annual Conference on the Economic Outlook two weeks ago projected that the state's unemployment rate would climb...
That makes the outlook doubly grim for retailers. Third-quarter profits for some of them were way down because of the accelerating economic slide. Los Angeles-based Carter Hawley Hale Stores, for example, showed an earnings slump of 35%, and profits at Allied Stores, which owns Bonwit Teller, declined 36%. These and other retailers look to Christmas for 25% of their annual sales and 35%, even 45%, of their yearly earnings...
...bright spots in the generally subdued outlook for Christmas this year is catalogue sales. Business for the some 5,000 merchants now operating through the mails has been growing at an annual rate of 15%, or more than twice the pace of retailing in stores. Maxwell Sroge, a Colorado Springs-based consultant who monitors catalogue sales, expects them to reach $33 billion this year, compared with $29 billion in 1980. Consumers now can mail or telephone orders for a deluxe domestic robot ($17,500) complete with electronic pet ($650) from Neiman-Marcus, a porcelain unicorn that plays The Impossible Dream...
...company's outlook is also better because of attractive new joint ventures with Honda. In September, BL introduced the Triumph Acclaim, a Honda-designed car that seats five people and sells for as much as $10,500. In addition, BL has signed a joint agreement with Honda to create and build a compact luxury car, code-named the XX, which will be sold both in Britain and abroad...
...outlook for the all-male colleges is far brighter today. At Washington and Lee, applications are up 40% since 1978. The Citadel has seen a 63% increase in a single year. Quality of incoming freshmen has also improved. At V.M.I., for instance, the average 1981 combined SAT score has jumped to 1,048-36 points higher than it was a decade ago and well above the national average of 890. This fall 18 National Merit Scholars matriculated at Washington and Lee; three years ago there were only three...