CEO Confidence Down on Delta Variant and Labor Market (Conference Board)

A report entitled Measure of CEO Confidence created by The Confidence Board and The Business Council indicates that CEO confidence has declined somewhat from Q2-2021 (I just looked up both the websites and what we find is that both are leading authorities in business based on the intellectual and financial capital of their members in US and global markets. 🦉 You can see some of their members HERE.) A measure of CEO confidence can impact things like corporate strategy and how they are going to adjust to the market. Short term concerns (which the numbers are still positive) are unlikely to derail strategy as much as say major market shifts. 

You can review the specific numbers in their report but it looks like current economic conditions and comparisons of outlooks when compared to 6 months ago were down from a prior assessment in Q2. Likewise, CEO sentiment was also down in feelings of prospects over the next six months as well as those activities in the short term. Much of this can be expected with Delta variant, economic shifts, labor shortages (Why we should innovate our production, robotics and wearable tech to improve productivity.) and a few big bills debated in Congress. Sometimes they are going to be short term issues and some can be long term problems. 

Dana Peterson, Chief Economist of The Conference Board states, “A summer surge of the highly infectious Delta variant—coupled with slumping vaccination rates—has brought pandemic uncertainty back to the fore in Q3. Nevertheless, optimism remains well above pre-pandemic levels, boding well for employment and investment growth in the months ahead.” (Conference Board, 2021, para 4.)

The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence

Conference Board (October 7th, 2021, para 4). CEO Confidence Retreated in Q3, but CEOs Remain Optimistic. Retrieved October 8th, 2021 from https://www.conference-board.org/research/CEO-Confidence/