Business speaks with its spending habits, and based on the results of Providence Business News' Summer 2016 Business Survey, Rhode Island businesses are talking an optimistic game.
For the first time in its eight-year history, the majority of respondents to the PBN survey said that they had more employees in the current quarter than in the previous quarter. And half as many respondents – just 1.3 percent of the total – said they were planning workforce reductions in the next quarter compared with a year ago.
One-third of respondents said they were planning to make big-ticket purchases in the next quarter, a near-record level. And yet, not all is well.
More than two-thirds of local companies said health care costs had increased the most in the last five years compared with four other standard cost drivers. And 54.1 percent of responding enterprises said that a shortage of qualified workers was among the greatest challenges of conducting business here. That compares with 38.9 percent who thought that same thing a year ago, and it was the most common response from among eight challenges, including health care costs, government fees and bureaucracy, and taxes.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo has made connecting public workforce development efforts with the needs of the state's employers a high priority, a smart policy choice for sure and one that deserves all the attention it can get. Because it would be a shame if Rhode Island's economic recovery, modest though it may be, were short-circuited just as it starts to gain momentum because there are not enough people for the jobs that are out there. •