By Hank Russell
A recently released survey showed that less than 30% of businesses in New York State currently have favorable business conditions, while more than half considered conditions to be “average.” Further, businesses nationwide had a more positive attitude toward their business conditions.
The United States Census Bureau releases its Business Trends and Outlook Survey on August 28. It measures business conditions and projections on an ongoing basis, usually every two weeks.
When asked how they would describe their business’ current performance, 13.50% rated it as “excellent,” compared to 13.00% two weeks ago. The percentage who said it was “above average” was 15.90%, down from 17.10% the previous period, and 52.40% said it was “average,” which was up from the last two weeks at 51.60%.
Additionally, 14.10% said it was “below average,” compared to 13.70% the time before, while 4.10% said their current performance was “poor,” down from 4.70% from the previous two weeks.
That is below what businesses polled across the country said, with 14.8% saying “excellent,” and 20.7% saying “above average.” More businesses nationwide said business conditions were either fair or poor; 45.5% said conditions were “average,” 14.9% said “below average” and 4.2% were “poor.”
Sales and revenues were not as good, as only 12.50% saw an increase — better than the previous figure of 12.00% — while 29.10% saw a downturn, higher than the 28.80% two weeks ago; 58.40% saw no change, a decline from a fortnight ago, when it was 59.20%.
When asked about the prices for their goods and services, 17.00% raised their prices; two weeks ago, 14.00% set price increases. The percentage of businesses that decreased prices fell from 3.90% the last two weeks to 3.70%, and fewer businesses kept their prices the same, from 82.10% to 79.00%
More businesses said they were paying more for goods and services than they were in the last time period, from 36.60% to 39.70%, while only 1.70% were paying less (1.90% paid less in the past two weeks), while 58.60% saw no change in prices, down from the last period (61.60%).
Those businesses being surveyed were asked how they think they will perform six months from now. Two weeks ago, 7.80% predicted conditions would be “excellent,” with 17.10% saying they were “above average,” 54.70% said “average,” 16.30% said “below average” and 4.10% said poor. This week, 8.60% foresaw their business conditions being “excellent” six months from now, 18.20% said “above average,” 55.20% said “average,” 14.70% said “below average” and 3.30% predicted business conditions to be “poor.”
More businesses nationwide, percentagewise, had a positive outlook, with 10.4% saying business conditions will be “excellent” and 22.2% will be “above average.” Additionally, fewer businesses foresaw middling to negative business conditions, with 49.8% predicting that conditions would be “average,” 14.4% saying “below average” and 3.2% saying “poor.”