|
[Illustration: Jim Frazier] |
Findings from this year’s Florida CEO Trends survey suggest that the economy is cooling, both nationally and in Florida. The chief executive officers of Florida’s largest and most influential corporations and organizations foresee a weak U.S. economy in the year ahead, and they expect Florida’s real estate market to remain soft. Declines in home sales and construction combined with slower population growth may exert a drag on the state’s economy as a whole. The upside is that lower housing prices may curb Florida’s rising cost of living, which CEOs now see as an impediment to recruitment and retention.
Since 2000, the Florida CEO Trends survey has tracked CEO perceptions, plans and actions through the shifting economic circumstances of recent years. (See question wording, survey results and featured CEO responses.)
Results from this year’s survey point to slower economic growth but not necessarily to a recession. Over two-thirds (68%) of Florida’s CEOs say they expected to reach their revenue goals for 2007. This figure is a large majority, but it is lower than last year’s number of 83%, which itself was lower than the percentage in 2005 (92%).
While most CEOs also expect to do well in 2008, over half (57%) predict that their organizations’ performance in the new year will surpass the performance level of 2007. This percentage is down from 76% in 2005 and 65% in ,06.
Florida CEOs also expect to add employees. Almost half (47%) say they will expand their staff in 2008. On the other hand, 16% expect to cut staff this year. This is the highest percentage predicting a staff reduction since this question was first asked in 2003.
Although Florida CEOs are not as optimistic about 2008 as they were about 2007, they remain firm in their expectation that their organizations will continue to prosper. Less than one in 10 (7%) anticipate doing worse in 2008 than in 2007. The CEOs that anticipate a decline in their business performance in 2008 are concentrated in construction (32% expect to do worse in 2008), manufacturing (13%), retail trade (9%) and wholesale trade (11%).
Florida Total
Employment
(in millions) |
|
% Change in Real Gross
Domestic/State Product
(National GDP | Florida GSP) |
 |
|
 |
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics |
|
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [ next ] |
email this article
printable format
