As strange as it might sound, higher demand for vans could be a sign that the economy is recovering.
Consumer spending, unemployment numbers and earning trends are common indicators that can help determine the current health of the U.S. economy. But there’s another, more peculiar gauge of a recovering economy that people may be missing: van sales.
Yes, you read that right. Van sales.
Vans are in higher demand these days, as Ford sold more vans last month than it has in any April in almost 30 years, Bloomberg reported. In the last five years, U.S. van sales by unit have more than doubled, outpacing the auto industry as a whole, according to data from Edmunds.com. Van sales increased by a third in the first quarter alone, and if this pace holds, Americans will buy 475,000 vans this year.
And as tenuous a connection as it might seem, higher demand for vans could mean that the business community at large is booming.
“Driving that demand is good old-fashioned commerce: Web shoppers clicking for package deliveries, business travelers zipping from airports to hotels, and a resurgent housing sector full of electricians, carpenters and other skilled workers hauling the tools of their trade from one busy job site to another,” the Bloomberg report says.
What’s more telling is that small business confidence has been in line with van sales. Small business optimism rose 1.7 in April to 96.9, according to the latest data from NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index, just as van sales increased. Bloomberg compared NFIB’s optimism index since 2009 to van sales, and the two graphs nearly, almost freakishly, mirror one another.
“If spending is the lifeblood of an economy, vans are the veins,” the Bloomberg report argues. Has your business bought a van recently?
