A solid majority (57%) of business decision makers believed that the United States economy was headed in the right direction, while a third (32%) thought the U.S. economy was off on the wrong track. 11% of surveyed business leaders were not sure.
Regionally, numbers were pretty much in line with the overall figures (the East, South, and West regions were similar), except for the Central Great Lakes region, where business leaders were less enthusiastic, as half thought the U.S. economy was headed in the right direction and 43% felt the economy was off on the wrong track.
The direction of the economy was also split along partisan lines. Most Democrats believed the economy was headed in the right direction (82% right direction/10% wrong track), while most Republicans thought just the opposite and believed the U.S. economy was off on the wrong track (29% right direction/62% wrong track). Almost half of Independents were not impressed with the Biden economy, as 49% said things were off on the wrong track and a third thought that the economy was headed in the right direction.
When it came to the annual revenue of the companies surveyed, smaller businesses-companies with less than 25 employees (30% right direction/56% wrong track) and 5 million dollars in annual revenue (40% right direction/46% wrong track)-were more likely to think the U.S. economy was off on the wrong track, while majorities of every other revenue and employee size categories thought the U.S. economy was headed in the right direction.
Overall, nearly two thirds of business leaders were worried (very and somewhat worried combined) about the humanitarian crisis at the U.S./Mexican border-nearly one-third (35%) were "very worried" and 29% were "somewhat worried" that the humanitarian crisis at the Mexican border would negatively impact their businesses.
A third were not worried (not too and not at all worried combined) about the impact of the Mexican border crisis hurting their bottom lines.
Regionally, the states with the most territory on the border with Mexico, the South (68% worried/29% not worried) and West regions (69% worried/28% not worried) were the most worried, compared to the East (60% worried/39% not worried) and Central/Great Lakes regions (56% worried/42% not worried), but majorities of business leaders were still worried about the humanitarian crisis negatively impacting their businesses.
Both major parties were also worried, but more Democrats than Republicans were "very worried"-37% to 35%, respectively. When the "very and somewhat" categories were combined, both Democrats (65% worried/33% not worried) and Republicans (67% worried/31% not worried) were almost equally worried about the border crisis.
A majority (55% worried/33% not worried) of Independents also were worried about the Mexican border crisis hurting businesses.
Another important topic, at the moment, is the national debt. With the recent passage of the 1.9 trillion stimulus bill and annual one trillion dollar budget deficits spent by the Trump administration; the U.S. government debt has exploded to more than 100% of our GDP. That puts us on a slippery slope to serfdom, but we will not stop here! It is likely we annually pass trillion dollar budget deficits going forward.
The reason the issue is so extremely important, and businesses understand this, as the government budget and deficits get bigger, there must become a way to pay for these things, and while Biden is pitching a 1.8 trillion "infrastructure bill," taxes will have to rise and that hurts all businesses, big and small. According to our poll, two thirds of business leaders surveyed were worried ('very and somewhat' categories were combined) the national debt would hurt their businesses, and one third (31%) were not worried.
Republicans (75% worried/23% not worried), most of whom had no issue with trillion dollar deficits during Trump, were more worried about the national debt than Democrats (65% worried/32% not worried) and Independents (57% worried/38% not worried).
Companies whose annual revenue was less than 5 million dollars (66% worried/31% not worried) were less worried than larger companies whose annual revenue was more than 500 million (80% worried/18% not worried).
Click here to view the frequencies.
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Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
Business Decision Makers
4/9/21 - 4/11/21
Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 500 business decision makers.
Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.
Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 500 is +/- 4.4 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.
Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.
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About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.
The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.