4 Hartford Business Journal • December 22, 2014 www.HartfordBusiness.com
Economy
E c o n o m i c F o r E c a s t
Survey
C
onnecticut's economy will continue its
slow recovery in 2015, but the majority of
Greater Hartford employers aren't planning
a majoring hiring spree or capital investment.
Those were a few of the major findings in
Hartford Business Journal's 2015 economic
outlook survey, which indicates employers have
tempered optimism for the year ahead.
In the next few pages, you'll find the results of
HBJ's reader survey, which was emailed to more
than 14,000 HBJ Today subscribers. The unscien-
tific results were gathered over a three-week peri-
od in November and garnered nearly 300 respon-
dents. The survey provides a window into how
the region's economy will likely perform in 2015,
and the results actually closely mirror many of the
economic forecasts provided by economists and
business executives featured in this publication.
About 46 percent of HBJ readers think the
economy will improve slightly or significantly
next year, while 41.5 percent of respondents
think Greater Hartford's economy is in better
condition today than it was a year ago.
Here's what else HBJ readers had to say:
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
How will Connecticut's economy fare in 2015 compared to 2014?
Do you think Greater Hartford's economy is
in better or worse condition today than it
was at this time last year?
By what percentage do you expect your
employee base to grow in 2015?
Do you plan to hire additional staff in 2015?
Do you have plans to expand in 2015?
Improve significantly
Improve slightly
Remain the same
Decline slightly
Decline significantly
7.5%
38.1%
30.6%
18.0%
5.8%
Not sure
23.1%
Better
41.5%
Worse
35.4%
Too soon
to tell/
I don't know
21.9%
Yes
32.2%
No
45.9%
1.
2.
4.
3.
5.
No
55.7%
Yes, with new
product lines
14.1%
Yes, with a
combination of
some or all
of the above
21.3%
Yes, with
expansion into
new geographic
territories
7.2%
Yes, with
new or
expanded
facilities
1.7%
5.5% to 10%
9.6%
No growth
43.3%
0.1% to 5%
34.7%
Negative growth
7.9%
10.5% or more
4.5%
