WASHINGTON — Businesses are finally willing to spend more money on equipment, a healthy sign for the economic recovery.

For the first time in nearly two years, companies ponied up more money for a category called "equipment and software" in the third quarter of the year.

It isn't a huge growth rate — just 1.1 percent, according to the government's report last week on U.S. economic growth. Still, equipment and software are a broad and important category of items that includes computers, software, medical equipment, industrial engines, autos, planes, furniture and farm machinery.

Business spending is especially crucial now because consumers, who normally drive a recovery, aren't doing so this time. Many shoppers are too squeezed by job losses, flat wages, tight credit and high debt.

The higher spending doesn't necessarily mean companies are swimming in cash. But in a twist on the Ant and the Grasshopper fable, some businesses managed to save enough during the recession to spend more now, analysts said. Others can't get loans to expand their plants and instead must upgrade the equipment they have, analysts said.

When businesses spend more on equipment, jobs can eventually be generated at companies that make the machines and the parts that go into them. For now, though, most businesses are reluctant to hire. To meet any pickup in demand, they're relying instead on workers they already have.

Investment strategist Edward Yardeni predicts businesses will boost their spending on capital equipment at around a 10 percent annualized rate in the current October-to-December quarter. And he thinks it will continue rising after that as businesses' revenue and profits improve