Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | June 16, 2025 | wbjournal.com FOCUS MIDYEAR ECONOMIC FORECAST In the annual midyear survey, WBJ readers say their outlook for the 2025 economy has soured since the start of the year A turn for the worse How will the U.S. economy fare in the second half of 2025 compared to the first half? How will the Central Mass. economy fare for the rest of 2025, compared to your expectations at the start of this year? Improve significantly 10% Improve slightly Remain the same Decline slightly T he economy isn't going to get better anytime soon, WBJ readers say. More than half (51%) of WBJ readers believe the U.S. economy will decline in the second half of this year, while a plurality (45)% of readers believe the same will be true of the local Cen- tral Massachusetts economy, according to the results of WBJ's annual Midyear Economic Survey. Both numbers far outpace the optimists among the survey-takers who see improvement in the national (35%) and local (20%) economies happening in 2025. Readers were slightly less pessimistic about how the Central Massa- chusetts economy had fared so far in 2025, with the plurality opinion being that it has performed on par with their expectations. However, more respondents felt the local economy underperformed expectations (34%) than those who say it outperformed expectations (23%). In the wake of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, WBJ launched this Midyear Economic Survey in 2021 because of how quickly major local, national, and global events can change businesspeople's outlook about the economy and their businesses. e survey comes on top of the annual end-of-year Economic Forecast survey and is meant to pro- vide collective economic insight in what can be turbulent times. e 2025 Midyear Economic Survey ran from May 27 to June 18. ese midyear survey results are a marked turn from how WBJ readers felt about the economy in December, where the end-of-year survey still showed overall optimism about the national and local business outlooks, even if that optimism was more restrained compared to the 2024 midyear survey and the 2023 end-of-year survey. e major factor impacting WBJ readers' outlook in the 2025 midyear survey was national tariff policies, with 50% of respondents saying tariffs were having a negative impact on their businesses. e impact of high-interest rates and lowered confidence in the ability to find workers also appear to be taking a toll. Nearly 45% of readers say they expect to make significant cuts in expenses by the end of 2025. – Brad Kane, editor 2 0 2 5 W 25% 14% Decline significantly 34% 17% Significantly better than I expected Better than I expected Exactly as I expected Worse than I expected Significantly worse than I expected 3% 17% 35% 38% 7%

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