WASHINGTON — After six years of a gloomy recession and shaky recovery, the U.S. economy looks poised to regain its glow next year with stronger job growth, bigger income gains for more people and a resurgence of homeowners moving up into new digs.
The overall economic outlook for the U.S. has improved sharply in recent weeks amid a string of surprisingly robust economic data: Businesses have stepped up hiring, new factory orders from abroad are at a two-year high and consumers have been flocking to car lots and restaurants.
State and local governments that not long ago were in massive retrenchment are spending more too.
"We could see the unemployment rate down to 6% this time next year," said Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
That would be a full percentage point below the current rate and, in some analysts' views, close to full employment.
Some experts say economic growth could be even stronger next year now that the House has approved the bipartisan two-year budget deal.
Not only would the agreement undo most of the sequestration spending cuts in the short term, it would lower a major confidence hurdle for businesses, some of which complained that they have been hamstrung by the federal government's repeated budget standoffs and partisan warring.
"If that is dealt with, that goes a long way toward reducing uncertainty," said David Hannah, chief executive of Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. in Los Angeles.
Even before the budget deal, Hannah was preparing for a marked step-up in business next year — and more aggressive hiring to add to his company's worldwide workforce of about 14,000.
Hannah said Reliance's orders accelerated in the second half of this year, which usually happens in the first half. He said the company got a good boost from the buoyant auto industry as well as its other mainline customers: aircraft makers, oil and gas firms and electronics companies.
Reliance's biggest source of revenue, nonresidential construction, has been lagging since the recession, but Hannah sees more demand next year as increased home-building creates the need for more supermarkets, doctors' offices and other commercial and industrial development.
"We are looking for 2014 to be a better year overall in both sales and profits than 2013," he said.
All in all, many economists now see economic growth climbing to a solid 3% next year, a significant improvement from the 2% average annual pace that the economy has been stuck on for the last 4 1/2 years.
An acceleration to 3% would probably push up U.S. job growth to 250,000 a month on average, from a monthly average of 190,000 over the last 12 months, Kleinhenz said.
At that pace, the nation would recover all the jobs lost in the recession by the end of 2014. And it would push down the jobless rate closer to the 5.5% to 6% range that some now see as the potential long-term unemployment rate.
Global competition and the increasing role played by computers and other advanced technologies have reduced the need for mid-level workers with no special skills, which has forced some economists to rethink their old assumption that full employment meant no more than 4% or 5% joblessness.
Many business executives and analysts remain cautious about the outlook.
One reason is that around this time each of the last four years, many top economists, including those at the Federal Reserve, put out rosy forecasts that the recovery would shift into higher gear.
But no sustained pickup ever materialized as still shell-shocked consumers sat on their hands and businesses on their piles of unspent cash. A host of political problems at home and shocks from the Arab world, the Eurozone and Asia took turns knocking down growth.
Although the external and internal conditions look better — Europe is recovering and U.S. debt burdens are lighter — there are new risks on the horizon.
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