Duke, CFO study: CFOs foresee more job cuts, credit woes - Business First of Columbus:

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The quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazinwe Global Business Outlook Surveyasked 1,300 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 employment to shrinlby 5.5 percent, with the unemployment rate in the U.S. seen risingv to perhaps as high as 12 perceng in the next12 months. Employmenft in Asia is expected to recedeby 1.
2 “Presumably, government programs will offset some of theser losses, but even the most optimistic government forecasts woulcd reduce the losses by only 2 million,” said Campbell Harvey, founding director of the surveyg and international business professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of “We’re facing the possibility of another 4 millionj lost jobs.” * U.S. and Europeanh CFOs foresee capital spending plunging by more than 10 In Asia, CFOs anticipate a 3 percent decline. * Six in 10 U.S. companied covered by the survey reported having troublre finding credit or acquiring credit at areasonabl rate.
Among those firms encounteringcredit impediments, 42 percent say the credig markets have gotten worse this year, while 23 percenyt say conditions have improved. * Weak consumer demandx and the credit market s ranked as the top two external concernwamong U.S. chief financial officers, with the federal government’s policiea coming in third. Among internal CFOs are losing the most sleep over theie inability to plan due to economic managingtheir companies’ capital and liquidity, and maintainint employee morale. Despite all the negative indicators, a majorith of the CFOs in the United States and Asia reported being more optimistic this quarter than they were thepreviouw 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 weigh on the ‘soft’ data like consumerf confidence. Recovery requires sustained confidence, and such confidence is forge d by strongereconomic fundamentals,” Harvey “The economic fundamentals – - employment, capital spending, the cost of creditg – are still fundamentally troubling.” To see the complete survey results, go to the officiakl Web site, .