Latest Job Numbers Cloud View of Recovery

NEW YORK CITY-The US Labor Department’s May job numbers were none too good, and Cushman & Wakefield’s Maria Sicola thinks the dismal economic news weighed heavily on the minds of respondents to last week’s GlobeSt.com Quick Poll. Responding to the question, OK, we’re well into 2011. How’s it going?” 41% agreed with the statement “It sucks & I’m tired of the recovery chatter.” Thirty-eight percent took a somewhat more upbeat view, stating that they’re “starting to see some activity; waiting for ’12,” while 21% said they were busier now than they’d been in two years.

“People remember what’s uppermost in their mind, and the news of late has certainly not been encouraging,” Sicola, executive managing director and head of Americas research at C&W, tells GlobeSt.com. Had the poll been conducted following the release of April’s unemployment figures, the percentage who agreed that “it sucks” might have been smaller.

“Consumer confidence was a bit higher then, and we didn’t have the downturn in the stock market that we’ve seen in the past 30 days,” says Sicola. On the other hand, she points out that 59% of the poll respondents see somewhat more sunshine in the forecast.

As to whether the recent economic news reflects longer-term trouble on the horizon, Sicola says it’s too early to tell. “One month of data does not a trend make,” she says. “For the moment, we view this as a bump in the road.” She notes that in the past few days, the market has responded positively to “some of the recent merger and acquisition activity.”

With ’11 reaching the halfway mark, Sicola sees progress in the recovery of commercial real estate fundamentals. “The investment market has been robust, up 70% year-over-year,” she says. Leasing volume has gained 30% on 2010 levels, especially in core CBDs, she adds. “Based on the pipeline of activity that we’re seeing, we feel that this will remain the case for the rest of the year.”