The Chilling Thing CEOs of Corporate America Said about Jobs
by Wolf Richter
WolfStreet.com
September 13, 2016
Part of the “unfortunate new normal.”
Corporate America has spoken again. The Business Roundtable, a lobbying group composed of the CEOs of the largest members of Corporate America, released its third quarter 2016 CEO Economic Outlook Survey today. And what it said about employment was ugly.
These companies matter in the US economy. They have combined global revenues of $7 trillion per year and a combined stock market capitalization of $7.9 trillion (that was probably before today’s selloff). They employ 16 million people. They buy nearly $500 billion a year from small and medium-sized firms annually. When they turn negative on employment, it has a ripple effect.
The overall economy remains mired in the “unfortunate new normal” – that’s how Business Roundtable Chairman and Caterpillar CEO, Doug Oberhelman, summarized the survey results. This “unfortunate new normal” is the condition where the economy is “pretty much stuck in neutral rather than moving forward.”
The survey results “show a continuation of an economy that’s failing to live to its potential,” he added. Which has been the case for years.
The overall economic outlook index – a composite of CEOs’ six-month projections for sales, capital spending, and employment – dropped 3.9 points to 69.5, well below the historical average of 79.6. But anything above 50 in this diffusion index (the index ranges from -50 to +150, with a midpoint of +50) means growth, however slow it may be. And so these CEOs pegged 2016 GDP growth at “just” 2.2%.
The Rest…HERE
