April 7th, 2010: No one want's to be the last person to make the call that the good times, or at least fair times are here again. So in that same breath, here's the call: The furniture industry will begin to see sales picking up very soon.

"Last in, last out," is the office furniture industry's motto, and that looks to hold true. After-tax corporate profits in the fourth quarter came to 7.6% of U.S. gross domestic product, up from 6.3% the previous year, regaining levels attained before the financial slide began is an indication that companies will soon hire back workers. And we all know what companies do when they hire back workers - they fill up empty buildings that will need, furniture and office design services.

There are signs that some industries are initially recovering more so than others, we expect to see earnings improve this year. Manufacturing, trucking and machine-related industries, which experienced sales declines of 20% to 30% in 2009, could make the greatest strides toward economic recovery, according to Sageworks Inc., a research firm in Raleigh, N.C., that collects data on private companies.

Manufacturing around the world are ratcheting up production, fueling optimism that the global economic recovery has legs. The United States production index in March registered its best reading since 2004, and China's manufacturing sector grew for the 13th straight month. Most European zones also have seen strong factory expansion, with Germany last month posting its best manufacturing growth in a decade.

This growing manufacturing strength is one reason that most economists now dismiss the possibility that the U.S. or other major economies will experience a double-dip recession. That's now off the table. The real evidence of the factory revival came in surveys of purchasing managers, who buy goods and raw materials needed to make products.The healthcare sector has added 588,000 jobs since the start of the downturn over two years ago. It's a market we're doing well in now.  The office furniture sector is next...we called it!