Business Optimism Index Rises Slightly

Location: Chicago
Author: Amy Smolensky
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Grant Thornton LLP’s Business Optimism Index, a quarterly confidence measure of U.S. business leaders, has risen slightly from 54.9 in Nov. to 56.3 at the end of February, but is still at its second lowest level since the inception of the index that began in 2002.

The survey found that confidence amongst U.S. business leaders was up slightly as it related to their outlook for the U.S. economy for next six months, and optimism for their own businesses over the next six months. In addition, the number who said that they planned to decrease staffing dropped from 13 percent to 10 percent, while those who had no plans for reductions increased from 50 percent to 53 percent.

	November 2007	February 2008
OVERALL Business Optimism Index	54.9	56.3
Believe U.S. economy will improve	17%	19%
Believe U.S. economy will worsen	28%	24%
Optimistic about own business	73%	75%
Pessimistic about own business	25%	23%
Increase staff	36%	36%
Decrease staff	13%	10%

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