More than half (51%) of WBJ readers believe the U.S. economy will decline in the second half of this year.
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The economy isn’t going to get better anytime soon, WBJ readers say.
More than half (51%) of WBJ readers believe the U.S. economy will decline in the second half of this year, while a plurality (45)% of readers believe the same will be true of the local Central Massachusetts economy, according to the results of WBJ’s annual Midyear Economic Survey. Both numbers far outpace the optimists among the survey-takers who see improvement in the national (35%) and local (20%) economies happening in 2025.
Readers were slightly less pessimistic about how the Central Massachusetts economy had fared so far in 2025, with the plurality opinion being that it has performed on par with their expectations. However, more respondents felt the local economy underperformed expectations (34%) than those who say it outperformed expectations (23%).
In the wake of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, WBJ launched this Midyear Economic Survey in 2021 because of how quickly major local, national, and global events can change businesspeople’s outlook about the economy and their businesses. The survey comes on top of the annual end-of-year Economic Forecast survey and is meant to provide collective economic insight in what can be turbulent times. The 2025 Midyear Economic Survey ran from May 27 to June 18.
These midyear survey results are a marked turn from how WBJ readers felt about the economy in December, where the end-of-year survey still showed overall optimism about the national and local business outlooks, even if that optimism was more restrained compared to the 2024 midyear survey and the 2023 end-of-year survey.
The major factor impacting WBJ readers’ outlook in the 2025 midyear survey was national tariff policies, with 50% of respondents saying tariffs were having a negative impact on their businesses. The impact of high-interest rates and lowered confidence in the ability to find workers also appear to be taking a toll. Nearly 45% of readers say they expect to make significant cuts in expenses by the end of 2025.
Brad Kane is editor of the Worcester Business Journal.
