Georgia Southern University’s Business Innovation Group (BIG) and Georgia CEO have partnered to establish a new Georgia Business Climate Survey, which will serve as a tool for viewing how the state is moving forward economically. Distributed on a quarterly-basis, the survey covers various types of questions regarding the business industry specifically, the economy as a whole, the business industry’s propensity to hire new staff and investments in capital.

This quarter’s survey analysis suggests that survey participants are cautiously optimistic about the future of Georgia’s economy. When asked directly about their outlook on Georgia business conditions over the next three months, 42 percent of participants thought conditions would be better in three months while 46 percent thought business conditions would be the same.

When asked about their outlook on the next three months, business leaders were the most optimistic about business volume and sales and the most anxious about capital access, profitability and labor availability.

Right now, 75 percent of survey participants do not think they will do more business out-of-state than what they are currently doing. Overall, only 21 percent are planning on expanding their out-of-state business activities in the next three months.

Thirty-two percent of survey participants work for companies that employ less than nine people, while 24 percent of participants work for companies that employ more than 250 people.

“Survey participants are cautiously optimistic about the current and future state of the economy,” stated Ben McKay, research specialist for the Georgia Southern Bureau of Business Research and Economic Development (BBRED). “This is a night and day difference when these findings are compared to similitude research conducted by BBRED shortly after the crash of 2008.

The sampling technique used for this study was a convenience sample of subscribers to one of the nine Georgia CEO daily newsletters. The locations served by this publication include Albany, Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Middle Georgia, Newnan, Savannah and Valdosta. Participants were contacted via email and responded using a provided link to an online questionnaire. The survey was open for two weeks and collected 368 valid responses. Due to the sampling technique used, it is unclear what the response rate to this survey is and the results are not representative of the views of the entire population of Georgia. The results do reflect the views of many readers of Georgia CEO.

For more information, please contact Ben McKay at [email protected]. For the full survey results, contact Matt Reed with Georgia CEO at [email protected].