Duke, CFO mag study: CFOs foresee more job cuts, credit woes - Memphis Business Journal:

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The quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Surveyasked 1,309 CFOs worldwidee about their expectations for the Their answers paint a gloomy picture for the rest of the * CFOs in the U.S. and Europe expectes employment to shrinkby 5.5 percent, with the unemploymengt rate in the U.S. seen rising to perhaps as high as 12 percen in the next12 months. Employment in Asia is expectedr to recedeby 1.
2 “Presumably, government programs will offset some of thesee losses, but even the most optimistic governmeny forecasts would reduce the losses by only 2 million,” said Campbell founding director of the survey and international business professorf at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. “We’re facing the possibility of anothee 4 millionlost jobs.” * U.S. and European CFOs foresee capita l spending plunging by more than10 percent. In CFOs anticipate a 3 percent decline. * Six in 10 U.S. companiese covered by the survey reported having trouble finding credit or acquiring credit at areasonable rate.
Amongg those firms encounteringcredit impediments, 42 percen t say the credit markets have gotten worsew this year, while 23 percent say conditionas have improved. * Weak consumer demand and the credif markets ranked as the top two external concernxsamong U.S. chief financial officers, with the federal government’sa policies coming in third. Amon g internal concerns, CFOs are losing the most sleep over their inability to plan due toeconomic uncertainty, managinbg their companies’ capital and liquidity, and maintaining employee Despite all the negative indicators, a majoritg of the CFOs in the United States and Asia reporteds being more optimistic this quarter than they were the previouds quarter.
That was not the case in Europe, wherer only 30 percent of the CFOs said they were more compared to the 31 percent who said they wereless “Our survey carries an important message: Don’t put too much weightr on the ‘soft’ data like consumer Recovery requires sustained confidence, and such confidence is forge by stronger economic fundamentals,” Harvey said. “The economic fundamentalsd –- employment, capital spending, the cost of credit – are still fundamentall y troubling.” To see the complets survey results, go to the official Web .