Middle market
economic perspective
The middle market is more resilient, dynamic and complex—and more critical to the U.S. economy than ever. For a century, RSM has remained a first‑choice advisor, helping middle market leaders navigate structural economic shifts, including volatile global trade, changing labor markets and increasing operational complexity.
In fiscal 2026, RSM Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas and U.S. Economist Tuan Nguyen identified the need to modernize how the middle market is defined. RSM’s updated definition provides a more accurate view of today’s middle market—enabling clients to chart a better path to sustained value creation.
RSM’s enterprise value roadmap (EVRM) supports this value creation and helps clients see their businesses more clearly within an increasingly competitive and uncertain business environment. By providing a 360‑degree view of operations, the EVRM helps middle market leaders better understand how external forces intersect with strategy, risk and performance—making complexity more manageable and decision making more informed.
Throughout fiscal 2026, RSM’s economists and industry analysts also delivered timely insights, forward‑looking analysis and proprietary, data‑driven research to help middle market firms understand the implications of shifting economic forces.
Leading the middle market conversation
As tariffs, interest rates and the integration of AI continue to challenge middle market businesses, RSM has been advancing the middle market conversation among executives, policymakers and the media.
The RSM US Middle Market Business Index (MMBI) anchors the conversation by capturing how U.S. executives across a wide range of industries feel about current economic conditions. The quarterly index is in its 11th year and includes special reports on topics such as U.S. workforce issues and cybersecurity. As of March 2026, the index reflects RSM’s updated, more expansive definition of the middle market.
These insights and analyses earned RSM multimedia coverage from major news outlets such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Yahoo! Finance and The Guardian, as well as industry trade publications.
RSM Industry Eminence Program
RSM's Industry Eminence Program, originally designed as a rotational program to build industry expertise, has evolved to develop full-time industry strategists who deliver forward-looking insights and identify real-time RSM service delivery to our premier clients.
Going forward, the Industry Eminence Program will condense to two years, continuing our tradition of accelerating industry subject matter expertise while simultaneously providing a high-quality talent experience and creating a pipeline for future dedicated industry strategists who are the faces of RSM’s industry intelligence, bringing insight directly to clients.
