Resounding Number of Business Executives Optimistic of President Trump’s New Policies

While the apparent vocal minority in America continues to lament the choices and behavior of new President Donald Trump, it seems that the majority of middle- to large-sized businesses are quite pleased about his direction, at least in terms of economic prospects. Indeed, it has been roughly seven years since mid-sized companies in the United States have been this optimistic.

According to new data from the JPMorgan Chase & Co Business Leaders Outlook survey, an impressive 80 percent of middle-market businesses express this optimism. This is up—more than double—from 39 percent, just last year. More importantly, this massive jump reflects a resounding paradigm shift in sentiment that continues to sweep through every level of corporate America, since US Presidential election in November.

The JPMorgan Chase & Co Business Leaders Outlook Survey takes data from 1,400 middle-market executives in the United States. A company is considered “middle-market” if their revenue ranges from $20 million to $500 million. The survey was conducted from Jan 3, 2017 to the day the new president occupied the office—Jan 20, 2017—and has a margin of error of only plus or minus 2.5 percent.

JPMorgan Chase senior economist Jim Glassman comments, “U.S. companies are gaining confidence, and they anticipate new economic support from Washington in the coming year. Even some of their top business challenges — managing labor costs and trying to tap a limited supply of talent — are more growing pains than survival tactics.”

As a matter of fact, more than three-quarters of all executives report they expect that the incoming policies of Donald Trump (and the Republican-led Congress) will have a noticeably positive impact on their businesses. This, of course, is thanks to a mostly pro-business agenda that includes both tax reform and fewer business regulations.

The report also said that about 62 percent of small business executives feel confident about the direction in which the country is headed. This is up from last year, though the increase is much smaller—only about 21 percent higher.
At the same time, not all business leaders in the United States see the new Washington policies as beneficial. At least 12 percent expect that the new policies will have a negative impact, mostly because Trump’s foreign and trade policies could result in a trade war.