On Thursday, April 11th, DCEDC hosted its Annual Economic Outlook Luncheon at Faranda’s.  Senior Economist Bill Strauss, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago returned to deliver this year’s forecast to 155 guests.

The event began with a high-level networking period, followed by a delicious buffet lunch provided by Faranda’s catering.  DCEDC’s Event Chair Gary Evans, welcomed the guests and introduced Strauss by recapping his impressive biography cv-strauss-pdf.

Economist William Strauss predicts workers could have a good chance of receiving a raise in 2019. Various sectors in the Midwest are outperforming their other regional counterparts, thanks in part to manufacturing activity. Strauss struck a mostly optimistic tone about the national and regional economy and tamped down fears of a recession.“When somebody says that the economy has been expanding for nearly 10 years, therefore next year we’re in a recession just because we’re due for a recession, to me that is really not very enlightened thinking,” Strauss said.

The outlook is better in some sectors than others, Strauss said. Although economic indicators show that workers could get better-than-average wage increases without triggering inflation and manufacturing activity is likely to see healthy growth, local farmers will continue to be frustrated by low prices for commodity crops such as corn and soybeans.

Following Strauss’s forecast, DCEDC Executive Director Paul Borek facilitated a healthy Q. and A. session with the guests.  He closed the event by thanking all of  the event sponsors for supporting this popular annual event, and the guests for attending.  He shared core initiatives that DCEDC is undertaking this year, including the relocation of the DCEDC office to 2179 Sycamore Road, DeKalb, IL 60115, in the coming weeks.

Posted below are some event pictures and a listing of our valued sponsors!  To view the Daily Chronicle’s article about the event, please click on the link–Daily Chronicle Article EOL 2019

Thank you to our Annual Event Sponsors-

Thank you Economic Outlook Luncheon Sponsors 2019