麻豆影院

Audio Script

Colorado business leaders鈥� expectations healthy but slowing
June 30, 2016听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Richard Wobbekind
A slowdown in economic growth this past year has Colorado business leaders less optimistic heading into the third quarter of 2016, according to the Leeds Business Confidence Index released today by CU-麻豆影院鈥檚 Leeds School of Business. Economist Richard Wobbekind says concerns about continued low energy prices and a slowdown in job growth are behind this downward trend.
CUT 1 鈥淭he state has been experiencing a slowdown in growth. If you look at the year-over-year growth compared to last year or last year compared to the year before we really are two years in a row of slowing employment growth in the state. Around the energy sector, that鈥檚 where we鈥檙e seeing significant job losses.鈥� (:18)
Wobbekind says the confidence in Colorado鈥檚 economy measured positive for all of the metrics within the index, except for the energy sector.
CUT 2 鈥淚f you look at the state as a whole we are generating jobs in every sector except natural resources and mining 鈥� the energy sector. And I think that broad-based growth is obvious in terms of technology growth and leisure and hospitality sector is doing very well. Health care is doing well. (:18) So we look around and see a lot of sectors that are doing well. State and local government finances are in good shape.鈥� (:25)
One factor weighing heavily on business leader鈥檚 minds is the upcoming presidential election, says Wobbekind.
CUT 3 鈥淲e asked: What are your greatest concerns? And far and away the political election was the biggest concern amongst the business leaders.鈥� (:10)
Wobbekind cautions that the survey was taken before the Brexit referendum last week and how the markets have responded to the vote and if the U.S. dollar will continue to strengthen against the British pound and Euro currencies.
CUT 4 鈥淭he two pieces that we鈥檇 be most concerned about going forward is the value of the dollar vis a vis what鈥檚 going on in Europe. If the dollar strengthens a lot more how does that impact the Colorado ag sector? How does that impact exports in general? So it鈥檚 going to continue to weigh on us. (:19) And then the second piece is just the psychology of what鈥檚 going on in the stock market right now and how long that lasts and will that cause consumers to hunker down a little bit and be a little bit more cautious in their spending.鈥� (:31)
But Wobbekind believes the markets will soon stabilize and the U.S. economy will remain healthy.
CUT 5 鈥淧ersonally, I expect the markets to settle in a few weeks. This is, to me, not permanent damage to the U.S. markets. But the longer it goes on the more uncertainty it creates. The more volatility that鈥檚 out there. The more it gets embedded into how people think.鈥� (:14)听
Compared with a year ago, third-quarter expectations have fallen by 3.6 points and fourth quarter expectations have fallen by 1.6 points.
-CU-
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