Area businesses experienced a positive first half of 2016 and remain “cautiously optimistic” about the second half of the year, according to the results of Mercer University’s Mid-Year Middle Georgia Economic Outlook Survey.
 
The survey was conducted by the BB&T Center for Undergraduate Research in Public Policy and Capitalism in Mercer’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics, in partnership with the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce, the Robins Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Forsyth-Monroe County Chamber of Commerce, the Milledgeville-Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, the Jones County/Gray Chamber of Commerce, the Roberta-Crawford County Chamber of Commerce and the Wilkinson County Chamber of Commerce.
 
The BB&T Center and the partner chambers received responses to an electronic survey from nearly 200 individuals. Dr. Antonio Saravia, assistant professor of economics and director of the BB&T Center, compiled the results, which can be viewed here.
 
“This is the fourth edition of the survey, and by now, we can see an interesting pattern. Despite experiencing positive six-month periods in terms of several indicators of profitability, businesses in Middle Georgia remain always cautiously optimistic about the next period,” said Dr. Saravia.
 
“In all of the editions of the survey, the majority of businesses do not identify the next six-month period as a good time to expand their operations. This has, of course, a negative impact on their investment and hiring decisions. One can speculate that this outlook indicates that businesses in the region do not see yet an economic recovery robust enough to induce risk-taking. In addition, respondents continue to identify government regulations and/or red tape, taxes and the quality of labor as the top obstacles to their business activities.”
 
Respondents represented considerable variety in terms of company size, geography and industry. Most were small businesses under 10 employees, which accounted for 46 percent of the total number of respondents. The majority had principal offices located in Bibb (39 percent), Houston (30 percent) and Monroe (15 percent) counties. Respondents represented a very wide range of industries, led by retail trade (13 percent), finance and insurance (13 percent), professional and technical services (9 percent), and health care and social services (9 percent).