Employer confidence edged down slightly in July, lead by concerns about hiring, according to the Business Confidence Index (BCI) issued by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) on Tuesday.
The BCI shed 0.3 points last month, bringing it to 61.5, which is still well within optimistic territory, according to AIM, the state’s largest employer association. But the Employment Index, one component of the overall index, decreased 2.4 points from June. Experts on the AIM Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) said the decrease reflects employers’ inability to hire skilled workers in a tight labor market, according to a statement from AIM.
“We hear anecdotes from companies in multiple industries that are turning away business or postponing expansions because they can’t find tech specialists, manufacturing workers or electricians to take the new jobs,” said Raymond Torto, chair of AIM’s BEA and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Published since 1991, the BCI is calculated on a 100-point scale, with 50 as neutral. The index has remained above 50 since October 2013.
