A weekly industry email that popped into my inbox today got my attention: The latest survey and report from The Industry Measure shows that business conditions are on the upswing for creative firms. Sounds like good news—but what's it all mean? I asked Richard Romano, analyst and writer for The Industry Measure, for a bit of interpretation.

Romano says, "The Business Conditions Index is based on the extent to which our survey respondents felt that business in the past 12 months has been better than, about as good as, worse than, or much worse than business conditions in the previous 12 months."

The latest BCI shows that creatives feel optimistic about the current state of their businesses—Romano says it's the highest the index has been since the winter of 2000–2001. He notes that a major economic slump that sent marketing dollars down the toilet happened in 2001: "Not that we’re predicting that this will happen again; we’re just sayin’."

In-house departments are feeling the love as corporations are generally healthy (which translates to healthy budgets for those in-house teams). Design firms are keeping busy with lots of web and print design work. The picture is mixed for ad agencies.

Want to know more? Visit The Industry Measure.