CU study: Business confidence falls heading into Q3

BOULDER — Business leaders in the Centennial State are feeling less optimistic about the economy heading into the third quarter of fiscal year 2019.
National politics and international trade issue are among chief concerns, according to the University of Colorado’s Leeds Business Confidence Index. The index is measurement of optimism on the state economy, the national economy, industry sales, industry profits, industry hiring and capital expenditures.
CU’s LBCI is 50.5 for the third quarter, down from 52.7 in the previous period. An index score of 50 indicates neutral levels of confidence, so 50.5 indicates slight optimism.
“These confidence numbers do not paint the same picture of what you actually see in the economy, 1.8 percent employment growth is a healthy employment number,” Richard Wobbekind, executive director of the Leeds Business Research Division, said in a prepared statement. “Until we see something that’s pointing in the negative direction, it does seem business leaders are a bit cautious.”
Of the business leaders surveyed by CU, 19 percent of respondents cited national politics and 18 percent cited trade issues such as tariffs as significant concerns.
“Businesses just hate uncertainty,” Wobbekind said. “When you continually give them uncertainty, they become very cautious, they stop investing, they stop hiring and they take a wait-and-see approach.”