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Business Improvement Team Survey Reports Mixed Growth Expectations

WEST BLOOMFIELD TWP. -- A new survey of 30,000 Michigan businesses finds mixed expectations for growth across the state -- more business owners and company executives expecting rapid growth, but fewer expecting growth overall.

The Corp! Business Trends Survey, conducted by the Business Improvement Team and Business Research Group, found that 11 percent of respondents believe the economic outlook will increase sharply, up from 4 percent a year ago.

However, 12 percent also expect a moderate decrease, up from 4 percent a year ago.

And expectations for job creation from medium to large companies also slipped from a year ago, when 55 percent of respondents said they expected job creation to either increase sharply (3 percent) or moderately (52 percent). While those expecting sharp growth was up (9 percent), only 41 percent expect moderate growth, resulting in an overall growth expectation in the medium or large sized group that slipped 5 percent year over year.

Only 29 percent of respondents expect to see a sharp or moderate increase in agriculture, forestry and commercial fishing compared with the 20 percent a year ago. However, 24 percent of respondents believe things will get worse (16 saying moderately, 8 percent sharply) which is more than the 19 percent expressing pessimism in those sectors a year ago.

A year ago, 3 percent of respondents said they expected a sharp increase in activity and 56 percent believed there would be a moderate increase in the sector. This year, those figures were 8 percent and 41 percent respectively, possibly a result of relatively strong performance that some see as not quite a trend.

More at www.bizimpteam.com.

Business Improvement Team is a collaborating consortium of business consulting firms. It includes Absolute Engineering & Consulting LLC, Clear Vision Strategy LLC, Expense Reduction Analysts, Franklin CIO Services LLC, Glass Retirement Strategies, Hennessey Capital, Taligence Inc., Tobias Vandeputte & Skulsky CPA's PC and Virtual Interactive Agency.

The Business Research Group, since its inception in 1986, has provided consultation and research services for many of America's largest corporations and organizations, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

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