Most business owners and business executives believe their companies will grow stronger next year along with the U.S. economy, according to the recently released 2024 Economic Outlook Survey by the New Jersey-based Provident Bank. Seventy-one percent of respondents expect their businesses’ outlook to improve while 62% expect the overall economy to improve. Sixty-one percent of respondents expect hiring to increase in the new year.
The most widely anticipated challenges facing businesses in the upcoming year were inflation (60%), rising wages (41%), supply chain-related delays and shortages (34%), revenue and sales growth (34%), attracting and retaining talent (29%) and corporate taxes (21%). Inflation was also one of the top three challenges facing the nation’s leaders, according to 70% of respondents. Other top policy challenges include climate change (44%), crime (32%), bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. (31%) and national debt (29%).
