If the region’s business leaders listened only to the chattering class or politicians with points to score, you get the sense they wouldn’t bother to get out of bed in the morning. After all, Rhode Island is dead last is every job-creation or business-climate list, right?
But if you talk to the business leaders themselves, as Providence Business News does all the time and very specifically twice a year in the PBN Business Survey, a very different picture emerges.
This summer’s survey continues the recent trend of hitting record highs for questions that measure the success of local businesses and the expectations of their leaders for the future.
More than two-thirds of respondents of the survey of private, for-profit enterprises in the state said that net income year to date surpasses the same period last year, business activity was improved over the last quarter and they expect their business’ performance to be better over the next year than it is right now. All three numbers were records for those questions. And while the respondents did not set a record for how many of them expect the Rhode Island economy to improve over the next 12 months, it was the third consecutive edition of the biannual survey in which roughly 65 percent said they expected the Ocean State economy to be better a year from now.
The lesson here? Be wary of conventional wisdom, which while it may often be conventional, is certainly not wise. •