First Greater Rockford Chamber business sentiment survey shows increased investment and hiring

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The first-ever quarterly business sentiment survey conducted by the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce shows about 90% of respondents plan to maintain or increase their investment in the coming year and nearly half plan to increase staffing.

Those are a few of the highlights from what the chamber sees as optimistic results to its first effort to gauge the business community’s economic outlook as well as its feelings on hiring practices, investment trends and other critical economic indicators.

“Our survey results reveal that local organizations are investing in their businesses and are hiring new staff,” Angela Kay Larson, CEO of the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce, said in a news release. “Despite ongoing challenges like availability of workers and regulatory burdens, the overall outlook remains positive.”

The survey showed more than 40% of businesses view the regional economy as somewhat good or very good, while 21% said it was somewhat poor and 2% said very poor. Others ranked it as average. Roughly two-thirds of businesses believe the U.S. economy is at least somewhat positive.

About 67% of respondents said the overall health of their business was either somewhat good or very good, and 45% said they plan on hiring more staff in the coming year. However, about 25% said the availability of a skilled workforce was a barrier to growth. They also cited concerns with taxes, fees and increased employment regulations.

The survey, which was conducted in partnership with the Region 1 Planning Council, was designed to align with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index. Nine of the questions asked on the U.S. Chamber’s index are on the Greater Rockford Chamber’s survey, which will provide a comparison between local and national economies in future results.

“For context, our local results will be compared to national responses gathered by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” Larson said. “We’ll release the first quarter comparison of local and national responses in the next few weeks, once data is available from the U.S. Chamber.”

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The first quarter survey was conducted from Jan. 31 through Feb. 14. Roughly 130 businesses responded, providing a 75% confidence rate in the results, according to the survey. The chamber’s goal is to bolster those response numbers above 200 and increase the confidence rate to 90%. The chamber is encouraging business leaders to participate in the next survey, open June 2 through 16 at rockfordchamber.com.

The survey is considered a key tool for understanding the needs of the business community. For example, the first survey showed about 55% of respondents don’t have an up-to-date succession plan, something the chamber plans to offer help with in the future.

The insights from the survey will also shape the chamber’s advocacy and programming, as well as allow it to track trends and provide information to policymakers, business leaders and economic development organizations.

Full survey results

To read the full survey report, go HERE.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas