Atlanta Fed Survey: Sales & Employment Growth Uncertainty Among U.S. Firms Ease

(RTTNews) - U.S. firms' concerns regarding the uncertainty over sales revenue growth and employment in the four quarters ahead eased slightly in March, results of a survey by the Atlanta Fed showed Wednesday. The smoothed indicator for the sales revenue growth uncertainty fell to 3.73 percent from 3.84 percent in February, the Atlanta Fed/Chicago Booth/Stanford Survey of Business Uncertainty (SBU) showed.

The indicator for employment uncertainty also decreased in March, falling to 4.07 percent from 4.14 percent in the previous month. The results are based on survey responses from about 1500 panel members,who occupy senior finance and managerial positions at U.S. firms, from March 11-22. The strength of the economy, inflation, and labor availability were listed as the top sources of uncertainty by the SBU panelists. "Sales revenue growth expectations have returned to their pre-pandemic average," the survey report said. "However, firms remain more uncertain about future revenue growth than they were before the pandemic."

Expected employment growth has improved in recent months and the uncertainty about employment growth has returned to pre-pandemic levels, the survey said.

"A 10 percentage-point positive (negative) surprise to firm-level sales growth over the next 12 months would lead firms to revise up (down) their employment forecasts by 4.5 percent," the survey report said.