Chief executives have not had so faith in their business prospects in three years.
Data from Thursday showed that the measure of the Conference Board in the confidence of CEO rose nine points in the first quarter of 2025 to a lecture of 60, the highest level in three years. The Conference Board added that the move above 50 indicates a shift from “careful optimism” to “confident optimism” among managers.
The survey included answers from 134 American CEOs and was carried out between January 27 and February 10.
“The improvement of CEO’s confidence in the first quarter of 2025 was considerable and widely based,” said Stephanie Guichard, senior economist of global charges at the Conference Board in the release “all components of the measure improved because CEOs were considerably optimistic , about current economic conditions and about future economic conditions – both in general and in their own industries.
A positive perspective on the labor market helped to contribute to the cheerful attitude of CEOs, with 73% of the CEOs being planning to grow or maintain the size of their workforce for the next 12 months. Managers also noted that labor shortages continued to relieve with more respondents who reported “hire no or small problems.”
However, there were signs of the “low rental, low fire” environment that economists used to describe the current dynamics of the labor market. The share of CEOs that expected to extend to their workforce in the coming year fell to 32% decrease from 40% last quarter, while the share planning did not increase to 41% higher than 34%.
Broadly speaking, managers have expressed cheerful confidence in both current and future economic prospects, with 44% of the CEOs that reported economic circumstances were better than six months ago, of only 20% last quarter. In the coming six months, 56% of CEOs expect that economic conditions will improve compared to only 33% in the previous quarter.
“CEOs also reported a relaxation of concern about a series of business risks,” said Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., the vice chairman of the Business Council and chairman Emeritus of the Conference Board. “Compared to Q4 2024, CEOs arranged ranked cyber threats, regulatory uncertainty, financial and economic risks and disturbances of the supply chain as risks with a high impact. CEOs in Q1 considered a risk with a high impact for their industry rise of 52% last quarter.
Thursday’s cheerful sentiment from business leaders it takes against how consumers have reported in recent surveys. In February, the research by the University of Michigan reached a lowest concern of seven months about higher inflation in the coming year.
