Pro-AV Business Showing Positive Indicators Despite Tariffs-Driven Uncertainties: AVIXA

May 12, 2025 by Dave Haynes

The Pro-AV business index generated month to month by trade association AVIXA’s market intelligence people suggests despite all the nutty uncertainty surrounding business conditions in the United States, the numbers for the industry actually look OK, at least so far.

The May report, looking at April numbers and Q1, suggest that while tariff uncertainty continues to be a top concern within the industry.

Over the past three months, the AV Sales Index (AVI-S) has consistently shown expansion. March saw the highest growth, with a slight moderation in April. Despite the small dip from March(60.9) to April (59.7), the overall trend remains positive, indicating sustained growth in the sector.

 The AV Employment Index (AVI-E) bounced back in April to 55.5 from 53.5. The AVI-S and AVI-E continue to show modest growth of the industry. The U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs in April, exceeding the expected 138,000. The government revised previous months downward. March’s figure was adjusted down to 185,000 and February’s was revised down even more sharply to just 85,000 new positions, this suggests the labor market hasn’t been quite as robust as initially reported. Unemployment remains at 4.2%.

The impact of federal layoffs and tariffs are expected to have broader effects in the coming months.

With the newly finalized numbers in our moving average for April, North America exceeded the rest of the world, 58.5 to 57.6. This is North America’s highest index since May 2024. Now in April, North America continued to outpace the rest of the world 621 at its initial reading versus 57.11 for the rest of the world. Shared growth is ideal for the industry.

While the indices suggest things are fine, individuals submitting their comments to AVIXA were more pessimistic.

“We started the year with high activity due to projects that couldn’t be invoiced last year. However, due to the tariffs business will be affected. There are companies leaving our country and the new investments have stopped.”

AV Integrator, North America

“We are not doing layoffs. Rather we are choosing to delay replacement hires until the economy picture is clearer.”

AV Integrator, North America

“Clients are withholding commitments due to economic transition and uncertainty. Tariff concerns with price and supply is high.”

AV Integrator, APAC

Uncertainty is particularly pervasive in the pro AV and digital signage businesses because electronics that mostly originate in China – as components or finisged products – have been subject to massive tariffs initiated by the U.S. on China. Just this morning, the two countries put those massive tariffs on hold for 90 days.

The “reciprocal” tariffs between the two will drop from 125% to 10% – which should get suspended shipments moving and new orders generated. Companies can work around 10% increases. 125%, not so much.

I will leave it to others to argue about who blinked.