This year, the number of survey takers predicting economic improvement in 2020 has risen to 54%.
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Last year, WBJ readers seemed to be worried the slow-and-steady economic growth since the end of the Great Recession soon would come to close. This year, that’s less of a concern.
In the annual survey of WBJ readers last year, 35% said they expected slight or significant improvement in the region’s economic output for 2019. That optimism was down from the previous two years, when more than 65% predicted improvement.
This year, the number of survey takers predicting economic improvement in 2020 has risen to 54%.
[Click through the slideshow above to see all the results from the 2020 Economic Forecast survey of WBJ readers.]
At the time the 2018 survey was taken, the national economy had hit a small lull, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 800 points, and people were worried about the impact of the trade war with China and the significant changes to U.S. tax policy.
This year, those concerns seem more distant: The DJIA is up more than 5,000 points since Jan. 1.
Despite more readers this year vs. last year predicting economic improvement, fewer actually feel good about how the economy performed. For the last three years, 79%, 85% and 77% of readers, respectively, said the economy had improved in the last 12 months. For this year’s survey, those saying the economy is better is down to 70%, which is still a significant number, but just less than previous years.
Yet, regardless of how they feel about 2019, WBJ readers expect a lot more from 2020:
- 68% predict some level of improvement in their company’s profitability next year;
- 62% expect housing prices to increase (vs. 32% in last year’s survey who expected an increase)
The skills gap in the workforce remains a major worry for WBJ readers, though, as 85% of those surveyed said they were either mildly or very concerned they wouldn’t be able to find the right people for any job openings they may have. In the survey question about the biggest impediment to business growth in Massachusetts (a survey question usually dominated by answers like, “High taxes” and “High cost of living”) the most popular write-in response was the lack of a skilled workforce.
Predicting economic performance – or even forecasting your company’s own revenue figures – is always a bit of a guessing game, especially in an eight-question survey. Still, the survey shows WBJ readers are looking forward to 2020, even moreso than they were looking forward to 2019.
