A new Siena College survey shows that across Upstate New York, CEO's of for-profit companies are less confident about their businesses than they were a year ago.
The Index of Business Leader Confidence, was based on interviews with more than 500 business leaders of companies from Rochester, Buffalo, the Albany area and Syracuse. Only CEO's from New York's Capital Region had a confidence score of over 100. (100 is the break-even point at which overall optimism and pessimism about current and future economic conditions are balanced). Rochester scored an 89, the lowest of the four upstate regions.
The Siena survey shows that sales and profits didn't meet the levels many of the CEO's had expected last year, and they also have concerns for 2016.
Siena College Research Institute Director Don Levy says that many of the CEOs have similar concerns.
"...when you ask why, they continue to tell us that they are over-regulated, over-taxed and now I think the election debates are starting to have an effect on them."
Levy says among the issues the survey shows a number of the CEOs are concerned with is the push for a $15/hour minimum wage and changes caused by the Affordable Care Act. And he says the business leaders are facing uncertainty because this is a presidential election year.
But with all that being said, Levy says there still are signs some of the company leaders are looking for a decent year. "I would say that close a third of them are robustly optimistic, it just hasn't created an environment where each and every one of these companies across the spectrum is able to succeed," Levy told WXXI News.
