The company’s suppliers are in Guangdong, a Chinese province that has not been at the center of the outbreak. There have been a few kinks in orders and deliveries, he said, but nothing unusually serious.

“Businesses crave certainty, and certainty isn’t the word of the day,” Mr. Woldenberg said. So he is doing what many business owners always do: managing as best as he can.

“I’m just an elf at the workbench,” he said, explaining his reaction to the conflicting and confusing economic signals.

Amy Glaser, senior vice president at the staffing firm Adecco, said, “We’re not seeing an impact yet.” The one trend she has noticed in the last few days is that employers are arranging for preliminary interviews to be done remotely instead of in person.

Becky Frankiewicz, president for North America at ManpowerGroup, an employment agency, said she, too, had not seen any pullback, even in the hospitality and travel industries. The labor market is tight, she said. “We continue to see a huge demand” for temporary and permanent workers.