Looking ahead, the vast majority of firms were optimistic about the next six months for the region (73.9%) and for their own businesses (78.3%). While more reported an increase in new orders than decreases, a larger percent (34.8%) indicated a reduction in full-time employees, while only 26.1% reported employee growth. Meanwhile, nonmanufacturing businesses described a somewhat sluggish economy in the region during September, though they also reported improvement in their own firms. To read the entire report, please go to /9v49fxy. Looking ahead six months, however, 32.3% of the firms expected to add to their employees, compared to only 10.8% that expected to reduce the number of employees. But more firms reported a slight decrease in the number of employees (21.9%) than saw an increase (14.6%), while the majority (60.1%) saw no change.
Two surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia indicated some improvement in business activity, though in both, overall indexes were still slightly negative.įirms responding to September's Business Outlook Survey reported slight improvement in business activity during the month.
