ALLENDALE, MI (WHTC) - “It was a fluke.”

That’s the conclusion Dr. Brian Long, Director of Supply Management Research at Grand Valley State University, has made following his latest monthly survey of purchasing managers in West and Southwest Michigan. He was talking about November’s rise in new orders, production, purchasing and employment that returned to the “almost flat” conditions in December that was prevalent for most of 2012. Even though the “Fiscal Cliff” crisis at the start of the New Year has passed, Dr. Long doesn’t think that 2013 is going to be economically robust, and that a “leveling out” will come over the next 12 months, with some highs and lows expected.