Chief Executive magazine has released its latest CEO Index. We follow this more closely now in order to try to gain insight about what the top brass of major companies in America is thinking beyond today. Unfortunately, this showed a drop. The survey was based only on 266 respondents, but this is a one-of-a-kind reading. CEO confidence headed south to an index reading of 63 in July after having shown some gradual improvement. All components inside the index fell, and the employment data was down the worst.
The Employment Confidence Index fell by 25% and we now have a figure that 57% of CEOs expect a continued decrease in employment during next quarter. Of those CEOs, over 95% rate the current employment environment as bad. Less than 5% of CEOs surveyed said that they think employment conditions are normal. A whopping 0.4% of those surveyed described employment conditions as ‘good.’
Cap-ex is holding up. The Capital Spending Index showed that more than half think capital spending will hold over the next quarter. 39% of CEOs said they expect capital spending to drop.
In addressing the slowdown, some 33% believe the worst is yet to come. The study noted that 35% think that the worst is currently happening now, and 29% feel that the worst part of the economic cycle has passed.
There are several reasons cited for the renewed CEO pessimism. Healthcare feform was noted as one reason, as was the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill.
You can read the full table data here at www.ChiefExecutive.net.
JON C. OGG
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