Last week John Volk wrote about the unbelievable turnout at VMX with over 27,000 in-person attendees. I certainly felt the optimism in the air at VMX but also sensed a cautiousness – can the animal health industry remain resilient in the face of economic uncertainty.
At the beginning of 2023, inflation was running at levels not seen in over 40 years. The Fed is trying to cool the economy by increasing interest rates from near 0% at the beginning of 2022 to 4.5% today. Talk of a recession is everywhere.
We are now starting to see the pain that rising interest rates, slowing demand and a recession will cause. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Salesforce, Twitter and Goldman Sachs have all announced thousands of layoffs in the past two months. Maybe these companies staffed-up too quickly during the pandemic and are now right-sizing, but this may be an omen of things to come.
But many vet clinics are as busy as ever and always appear to be in search of qualified candidates to fill openings for veterinarians and vet technicians. We will review hiring issues, what veterinarians intend to in times of inflation and more at our annual Industry Overview at WVC on February 20th (sign up here). We are hoping for another big, optimistic turnout at WVC – maybe that will be a good sign for 2023.
Randy Freides
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