Q. The recent Baird Uniform Industry Survey shows the highest add/stop index numbers since 2005, a period of healthy growth leading up to the recession in 2008-’09. Broadly speaking, is there any reason to think the current expansion won’t continue in the near term?

A. The employment market remains strong and leading employment indicators (such as jobless claims) have shown no indication of that pattern changing, still at multiyear lows. Broadly speaking, most markets are seeing net job growth with the most recent gains coming from commodity-leveraged markets/geographies, where we previously saw fairly significant oil price-related declines in ...