Utah business leaders are wary
The results of the Zions Bank Utah Quarterly Economic Forecast, released Thursday, showed optimism at the lowest level since the second quarter of 2006, when the bank began conducting the surveys.
The forecast, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, tracks trends in the local marketplace from the perspective of high-level executives throughout the state. The 2007 fourth-quarter survey, conducted Jan. 1-22, rated levels of optimism by business executives, based on profits and losses over the previous three months.
On a scale of one (very pessimistic) to 10 (very optimistic), the fourth-quarter 2007 figure was a mean score of 7.02. The figure has generally slipped from the 7.87 second-quarter 2006 initial survey result.
Predictions for improved economic health within individual companies also is at its lowest point since the forecast began. The mean score, which was 3.53 in the 2006 second and third quarters, based on a 1-to-5 scale, was 3.23 in the most recent survey.
Another component revealed that companies based outside the Wasatch Front were more likely to give optimistic ratings of their financial future than those based along the Wasatch Front.
"Our research shows that Utah executives are not as enthusiastically optimistic about the financial futures of their companies as they had been throughout 2006," said Pat Jones, co-owner of Dan Jones & Associates. "They are also exhibiting increased concern about inflation, costs and competition in the marketplace."
The forecast report also shows:
• Gasoline prices (5.52), employee health insurance costs (5.34) and finding qualified employees (5.31) topped the list of 11 economic concerns among respondents on a scale of 1 (not at all concerned) to 7 (very concerned).
• Three of the 11 concerns reached survey highs: the impact of inflation on the cost to do business (4.82), the cost of inventory and supplies (4.13) and the ability to compete in the marketplace (3.84).
• Respondents' capital expenditures will remain about the same in the current quarter as in the previous one.
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
Comments
- Funds for new courthouse approved 1:48 a.m.
- Godfrey vetoes Ogden budget 1:48 a.m.
- Odd Fellows Hall move 1:47 a.m.
- 2 country groups to perform 1:47 a.m.
- Rumor has Boozer with Bulls 1:20 a.m.
- Jazz in back of line for free agents 1:19 a.m.
- Okur signs two-year extension 1:18 a.m.
- Marion to Mavs, Stackhouse to Griz 1:16 a.m.
- Price for redistricting plan challenged 1:04 a.m.
- Basketball campers learn service 1:02 a.m.
- Rumor has Boozer with Bulls
- Jazz in back of line for free agents
- Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
- Okur signs two-year extension
- Restaurant destroyed by fire
- Jazz won't meet Lopez on Europe trip
- A primer for the 6th Potter film
- Jazz rally for OT win at Orlando
- AK will not play for Russia this summer
- Mall owner seeks to retain zoning
- Bronco collecting a galaxy of recruits
139 - Letters: Palin mistreated
136 - Teachers struggle with district cuts
134 - Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
123 - Rumor has Boozer with Bulls
88 - Fairness of BCS debated
81 - Moon landing: Let's hear from you
74 - Chaffetz eyes challenging Bennett
72 - Services bids farewell to Jackson
70 - Letters: Time for a revolution
69
Through the years, I've always raised eyebrows whenever I tell people...
The photographs are mysterious, brooding, dark. They show dimples and...
"Hermione Granger (Emma Watson): .... And she's come to have certain feelings...
Stadium of Smoke - cough, wheeze, cough!
There is so much more to Dave than ever could be told. We've know him as the...
A very realistic, fair assessment D-News. Well done.
California is the poster child of how too many social programs and unions can...
This is normal in the business world, take out several loans on the same...
It is a well know fact that the need for meaningful service practically never...
Americans advanced across a relatively unexploited landscape, and logged old...
My apologies in advance for the violent example I use to make my point below....
It feels like I'm living in the twilight zone. Global warming when the...



You can be the first to comment on this story.