Massachusetts employers grew a bit more confident in June but remained slightly pessimistic overall in the face of federal policy changes, especially uncertainty about tariffs, according new confidence index results.
Even before the Trump administration latest tariffs, announced last week, sent the stock market into a tailspin, Massachusetts businesses were turning pessimistic about the state economy in March.
Business confidence among companies in Massachusetts has stagnated to begin the new year while companies have also expressed concerns regarding President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs.
Massachusetts business confidence fell in June amid indications that the Federal Reserve’s two-year effort to moderate inflation may finally be slowing down the economy.
Associated Industries of Massachusetts cited “strong signals” of more moderate inflation, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s suggestion last month that interest rate increases appear to be over for now and that there may be rate reductions in 2024.
With the interest rate hikes expected to persist, U.S. small businesses are still optimistic while still being alert to the impacts that the current economic pressures, according to two bank surveys.
The Massachusetts economy keeps driving ahead and that recession out on the horizon doesn’t seem to be getting any closer.
Bay State businesses are feeling a summertime dash of sunshine, with AIM’s Business Confidence Index back in an optimistic range for the first time since April.
Two economic surveys showed that the U.S. economy is continuing to suffer from high interest environment and is likely headed for a recession after the announcement of another Federal Reserve rate hike Wednesday, even as Federal Reserve economists have stopped forecasting that recession is on the horizon.
Confidence levels among Massachusetts employers dipped back into pessimistic territory in May for the first time in more than two years.
Confidence among Massachusetts employers rose again in August, despite ongoing worries about inflation, recession and hiring challenges, a new survey says.
Recession and inflation concerns conspired in June to leave Massachusetts employers on the verge of switching to a pessimistic posture.
After rising slightly in each of the previous three months, business confidence in Massachusetts took a significant tumble in May.
Business confidence in Massachusetts surged to an outright enthusiastic level in March, buoyed by COVID-19 vaccination progress and the final passage of a $1.9 trillion federal spending law.
Business confidence in Massachusetts rebounded in June in lockstep with the reopening of economic sectors that had been sealed off by government order to guard against the spread of COVID-19.
Already worried to start the year about the possibility of an economic slowdown, the confidence of Bay State employers in the economy in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic plummeted in March to near-Great Recession levels.
Every element of Massachusetts employer confidence is lower than it was a year ago after a tumultuous August of escalating trade tensions sank business sentiment, an Associated Industries of Massachusetts survey found.
Associated Industries of Massachusetts, in releasing its monthly index readings on Tuesday, said signs of a “cyclical global slowdown” and labor force constraints were behind a 0.3 percent drop in its business confidence index
Associated Industries of Massachusetts reported Tuesday that its business confidence index rose 0.6 points to 61.6, with any reading above 50 considered in positive territory.
Business confidence shot up among Massachusetts employers last month and hit a level not seen since the early days of the new millennium, but a tight labor market still poses a concern.
