Q3 BUSINESS CONFIDENCE SURVEY SHOWS CEOS STILL HOLDING PAT ON NEW HIRING
The Bay Area Council on October 26 released the third quarter results of Business Confidence Survey, with more employers saying they’ll stand pat on any new hiring and fewer expecting the Bay Area economy to pick up much steam in the coming months. The business confidence index – the number that distills the overall survey findings – registered 59, dropping two points from the previous quarter but remaining positive overall. The Business Confidence Survey gauges the sentiments of top business leaders across the entire Bay Area region and across multiple industries. The responses of the 400 CEOs, top executives and economic development officials in the nine Bay Area counties surveyed show that 58 percent expect to keep their workforce the same, an increase from 53 percent in the previous quarter. Still, 30 percent of executives said they plan to increase their workforce over the next six months. And the number of CEOs who expect to decrease their workforce over the next six months declined two points since the previous survey to 11 percent. While the outlook for hiring remains mixed, the outlook for the regional economy over the next six months appears mostly good. In San Francisco, 65 percent of CEOs surveyed think the economy will get better. In San Mateo County, the number is 64 percent, followed by Santa Clara County (56%) and the North Bay (54%). The hard hit East Bay appeared to be the main drag on overall confidence, with 49 percent of CEOs surveyed in Alameda County expressing optimism for improvement and 48 percent across Contra Costa and Solano counties.
Business Confidence Survey Charts and Graphs
