

indications of shortages of both management talent
and skilled jobs such as diesel mechanics, tech
engineers, and sales and service positions.
Other top concerns include health care costs, which
are expected to increase by more than 7 percent over
the next year; Washington gridlock and, for the first
time as a top 5 concern, data security.
Table 1: During the past quarter, which items have
7
Global results
Optimism is up in Europe, especially in France, only
a notch below U.S. optimism. Capital spending will
strengthen and moderate employment growth (1.7
percent) is expected. Top concerns include economic
uncertainty, attracting and retaining qualified
employees, followed by governmental regulations and
policies.
About one in five companies say they are delaying
expansion due to uncertainty about regulation and
the economy. Shortage of funding and of qualified
employees limits the ability to pursue certain value-
creating projects (in addition to too much uncertainty
about some projects and these projects not being core
to the firm).
Optimism is up in Asia, nearly as high as in the U.S.
Difficulty attracting employees, currency risk, and
falling employee productivity are top concerns. Five
percent capital spending and 2.7 percent employment
growth expected. About one-third of firms say
uncertainty about economic growth and tax policy are
greater than normal but few Asian firms are slowing
expansion plans in response. Too much uncertainty
and overly optimistic projections are primary reasons
that some value-creating projects are not always
pursued (in addition risk being too high and the project
not being core to the firm’s strategies).
Latin American CFOs have moderate optimism, up from
very low levels one year ago. After dropping 6 months
ago, Mexican optimism has almost fully recovered.
Still, there are significant concerns about economic
uncertainty and weak demand.
Business optimism in Africa is the lowest in the
world. Employment outlook is weak. Biggest concerns
are economic uncertainty, volatility of the political
situation, and governmental policies.
Fifty-five percent say that uncertainty is worse than
normal, and among these firms more than half are
holding off on expansion in response. Shortage of
funding limits ability to pursue value-creating projects
(in addition to projects not being core to the firm and
scarcity of management time).