*Source: Sageworks, a financial information company

While private company sales and U.S. GDP have been growing consecutively for over two years, another important economic indicator, the national unemployment rate, now at 8.2 percent, has not improved at a similar rate.

Brian Hamilton, CEO of Sageworks and a noted expert on privately held companies explained, “In reviewing the numbers, the fear now is that we may be running out of runway before the onset of another recession. We will not be surprised to see continued growth in GDP given the fact that privately held companies continue to grow at a healthy rate.  However, what is becoming slightly concerning is that the unemployment rate is not decreasing at a fast enough rate. In general, if you look over a long period of time, the average expansionary cycle is approximately 4 years and the average recessionary period is one year. Historically, it has taken approximately 12 to 20 months for unemployment to fall in an expansion to roughly pre-recession levels.  Right now, we are into the 34th month of the recovery, and, yet, unemployment remains too high.  If we don’t get employment up, we may be bumping into the next recession, during which time we cannot expect job growth.”