In recent years, businesses often have indicated a capability to dip into this backlog for capital investments that can quickly displace labor costs should they be perceived as about to rise. This view is reinforced by securities analysts who presumably are knowledgeable about the companies they follow.
This veritable army of technicians has been projecting increasingly higher five-year earnings growth, on average, since early 1995, according to I/B/E/S, a Wall Street research firm that compiles these estimates for the S&P 500. In January 1995, the analysts projected five-year earnings to rise on average by about 11 percent annually.