Bureau of Business Research
Date of this Version
1-6-2017
Document Type
Article
Citation
Prepared by the UNL College of Business Administration, Bureau of Business Research
Abstract
The gap between business and consumer confidence persisted in Nebraska through December of 2016. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) stood at 88.2 during December, well below the neutral value of 100. The outlook of Nebraska businesses, by contrast, was positive with respondents to the Survey of Nebraska Business expecting to increase both sales and employment over the next 6 months. In particular, 31 percent of businesses expect sales to increase over the next 6 months while just 18 percent expect sales to fall. Fifteen percent of businesses expect to expand employment while 3 percent expect to reduce it. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by one-third of respondents, labor availability and quality by 18 percent of respondents and both taxes and government regulation by 11 percent of respondents. Households reported a variety of financial concerns with 51 percent reporting that their primary financial concerns relate to the cost of living including health care costs, taxes, major expenses (furniture, appliances, automobiles or college tuition) and the general cost of living.
Comments
Copyright 2016 Eric Thompson