Do Election Years Spur Industry Growth? U.S. Presidential Election Year Vs. 1st Year in Office: Furniture Industry Sales: Growth Over the Previous Year
July 8,
2016 by in General 
This is the final factoid in a series of five factoids exploring the possible connection between election years and a healthy economy. The previous four factoids studied the positive effect election years have had on furniture sales, consumer confidence, gross domestic product and unemployment rates from 1997 to 2016.
While the majority of election years in recent times have ended on a positive economic note for the furniture industry, did the momentum carry over to the first year of a president’s new term? The continued upswing did occur in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but since the turn of the century, furniture industry growth during a president’s first year in office did not surpass the election year preceding it.
During the 80s and 90s, with the exception of Ronald Reagan’s second term, the first year of a president’s four-year term experienced higher furniture industry growth than the previous election year. In recent elections, the economic momentum of the election year did not carry over to the first year of a presidency. No president’s first year of the term exceeded the previous election year’s growth. If this trend continues into 2017, the Furniture Industry will not experience quite the growth of 2016.