Business confidence improves in Sonoma County

<p>Sonoma County business leaders are growing increasingly confident about the local economy, but still expect slow growth over the next six months, according to a new survey.</p><p>Most executives predict that investments, wages, net profits and the number of full-time employees will remain essentially unchanged through mid 2010, according to a survey by the county's Economic Development Board.</p><p>The results indicate that business leaders believe the worst of the recession is behind them, said Ben Stone, the board's executive director.</p><p>“We're through the tornado and the hurricane,” Stone said.</p><p>The board reported its business confidence index rose to 5.04, up from 4.6 last summer and 3.62 a year ago, which had been the lowest index score in more than a decade of such surveys. The index measures confidence on a 10-point scale, with 10 being supreme confidence and 1 a complete lack of it.</p><p>Keith Butts, the development board's research coordinator, said more executives rated their confidence level last summer at 1 or 2. Even so, their near-term outlook remained somewhat tempered.</p><p>“Respondents are a little more upbeat about their own industry but a little unsure how everybody else is doing,” Butts said.</p><p>Nearly half of the executives said they expect the economy to get back on track within 24 months. Slightly more than a third placed that date further out at up to 48 months.</p><p>More than 7 out of 10 executives thought the holiday retail season for local businesses had been improved or unchanged from a year ago.</p><p>Executives in the agriculture and technology sectors expressed the highest levels of confidence, while those in the hospitality sector reported the lowest.</p><p>Technology is benefiting from a boost in business orders from Asia, Stone said, and wineries perhaps feel the worst is behind them.</p><p>Leisure travel is rebounding, he said, but travel for business and conferences remains down.</p><p>The county surveyed 300 local business executives during December 2009 and January 2010, obtaining responses from 91 businesses.</p><p>The report was prepared in cooperation with the county's Workforce Investment Board.</p>