Colorado’s business leaders are feeling nervous.
Confidence among the state’s executives about future business prospects dropped sharply heading into the second quarter, according to an index from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business. The quarterly report surveys leaders about their expectations for the national and state economies, industry sales, profits, hiring plans and capital expenditures.
President Donald Trump’s policies drove the results, according to Brian Lewandowski, executive director of CU’s Leeds Business Research Division. Panelists cited the new administration, tariffs, economic uncertainty and politics as the four main reasons for their responses, Lewandowski said during a conference call with reporters.
“I think a lot of that really boils down to uncertainty,” Lewandowski said.
For now, economic indicators like unemployment are holding up reasonably well. But there’s a lag with economic data.
“What we watch now is how consumers and businesses actually behave. They told us about their uncertainty… Sometimes behavior matches those expectations as we look back and sometimes behavior does not match those expectations,” Lewandowski said.
More than three-quarters of survey respondents were negative on the outlook for the state’s economy. The negativity is centered around trade policy, federal contracts and grants, health care policy, immigration policy and foreign policy.
Expectations for hiring and capital expenditures were particularly weak.
