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

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The quarterly Duke University/CFpO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survehyasked 1,309 CFOs worldwide about their expectations for the Their answers paint a gloomy picturew for the rest of the year. * CFOs in the U.S. and Europe expected employment to shrinkby 5.5 percent, with the unemploymengt rate in the U.S. seen risingv to perhaps as high as 12 percenr in the next12 months. Employment in Asia is expected to recedeby 1.
2 “Presumably, government programs will offset some of these but even the most optimistic governmeny forecasts would reduce the losses by only 2 said Campbell Harvey, founding director of the survey and internationapl business professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of “We’re facing the possibility of another 4 million lost jobs.” * U.S. and European CFOs foresee capital spending plunging by more than 10 In Asia, CFOs anticipate a 3 percengt decline. * Six in 10 U.S. companieds covered by the survey reported having trouble findinh credit or acquiring credit at areasonablde rate.
Among those firms encountering credit 42 percent say the credit markets have gottenm worsethis year, while 23 perceny say conditions have improved. * Weak consumer demandd and the credit market ranked as the top two external concernsamong U.S. chiec financial officers, with the federap government’s policies coming in third. Among internall concerns, CFOs are losing the most slee over their inability to plan due to economic managingtheir companies’ capital and and maintaining employee morale.
Despitw all the negative indicators, a majority of the CFOs in the Unitex States and Asia reported being more optimistic this quarter than they were the previous That was not the casein Europe, wherde only 30 percent of the CFOs said they were more compared to the 31 percent who said they were less “Our survey carries an importanr message: Don’t put too much weighy on the ‘soft’ data like consumer Recovery requires sustained confidence, and such confidencer is forged by stronger economic fundamentals,” Harvey “The economic fundamentals –- employment, capital spending, the cost of crediyt – are still fundamentally troubling.
” To see the completre survey results, go to the official Web site, .