The results of the 2018 second quarter survey by Georgia CEO, a news source that shares the state’s most important features, videos and newswires with Georgia’s top business leaders, suggest that Georgia business leaders’ confidence levels remain strong despite a reported decrease in the volume of business and an accompanying strong level of sales.  

The purpose of this survey is to understand how general business conditions impact and influence Georgia CEO subscribers on a quarterly basis. The news outlet partners with the Georgia Southern University Center for Business Analytics and Economic Research (CBAER), to prepare, distribute and analyze the survey. 

In Q2 of 2018, survey participants’ views of business volume reached its lowest level since October of 2017. In addition, about 48 percent of participants noted that their views of general business conditions were most influenced by either increasing demand or government policy. 

Moving into Q3, 54 percent view business conditions as improving and 39 percent view conditions as unchanged. The largest constraint preventing additional business expansion is a shortage of employees. Based on participant comments, it is becoming more difficult to find qualified candidates to fill open positions. 

“This is the first time since this survey began in 2016 that so many participants have noted that finding the right employees is becoming more challenging. This could mean that the labor market across Georgia is starting to tighten, which means that we are getting closer to full employment,” noted Ben McKay, assistant director of CBAER.

Despite the differences in these results from preview surveys, those who responded are still positive about future business conditions. When the responses about general business conditions for Q2 are compared to Q3 almost every category sees an increase in sentiment. In some areas, the increase in sentiment was more noteworthy including volume of business (13 percent), financial health (7 percent), profitability (6 percent) and sales (6 percent). In other categories the changes in sentiment were closer to the normal range; these include hiring, employment and access to capital. In this sample, access to capital was the only factor of the six tracked to decrease. This means that, overall, optimism among participants remains strong going forward. 

A convenience sampling technique was used for this study, and the questionnaire was emailed to subscribers of each of the 12 Georgia CEO daily newsletters. Georgia CEO publishes newsletters in Albany, Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Gainesville, Middle Georgia, Newnan, Rome, Savannah, Tifton and Valdosta, Georgia. The survey was open from July 10 through July 25, 2018; in total, 209 valid responses were recorded.