Duke, CFO study: CFOs foresee more job cuts, credit woes - Denver Business Journal:

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The quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlooj Surveyasked 1,309 CFOs worldwide about their expectations for the Their answers paint a gloomy picture for the rest of the * CFOs in the U.S. and Europe expected employmenrt to shrinkby 5.5 percent, with the unemployment rate in the U.S. seen rising to perhaps as high as 12 percentt in the next12 months. Employment in Asia is expectef to recedeby 1.2 percent.
“Presumably, government programs will offset some ofthese losses, but even the most optimistic government forecasts would reduce the losse by only 2 million,” said Campbell founding director of the survey and internationakl business professor at Duke’as Fuqua School of Business. “We’re facing the possibilitu of another 4 millionlost * U.S. and European CFOs foresede capital spending plunging by more than 10 In Asia, CFOs anticipate a 3 percentr decline. * Six in 10 U.S.
companies covered by the survey reported having trouble findinyg credit or acquiring credit at a reasonable Among those firms encounteringcredi impediments, 42 percent say the credirt markets have gotten worse this while 23 percent say conditions have improved. * Weak consumef demand and the credit markets rankee as the top two external concernsamongb U.S. chief financial officers, with the federa l government’s policies coming in third. Amongb internal concerns, CFOs are losing the most sleep over theif inability to plan due toeconomic uncertainty, managinfg their companies’ capital and liquidity, and maintaining employere morale.
Despite all the negative indicators, a majority of the CFOs in the Unitesd States and Asia reported beinv more optimistic this quarter than they were the previous quarter. That was not the case in where only 30 percent of the CFOs said they were more compared to the 31 percent who said they wereless “Our survey carries an important message: Don’t put too much weight on the data like consumer confidence. Recover requires sustained confidence, and such confidence is forgedx by strongereconomic fundamentals,” Harvey “The economic fundamentals –- employment, capital the cost of credit – are stilol fundamentally troubling.
” To see the complet e survey results, go to the official Web .