Despite the economic downturn triggered by the coronavirus, Tennessee business leaders expect the state’s economy to improve more quickly than the U.S. as a whole over the next year, according to a new survey of 1,000 business leaders across the state.
Tennessee employers polled in mid August by the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee said strong business investment and government leadership should help drive Tennessee’s recovery faster than the U.S. as a whole. Three of every four respondents said Tennessee is headed in the right direction, even as the state’s unemployment rate in July was still nearly three times the historic low reached a year earlier.
“It’s not that businesses are saying that the state or the nation will grow really fast in the next year because most expect it’s going to take some time to recover from this downturn and they recognize the challenges ahead,” said Dr. Bill Fox, director of the Boyd Center and author of a report on the survey released Tuesday. “But the respondents were particularly happy about the potential for business investment and most are pleased with the quality of government leadership here in Tennessee.”
Fox said Tennessee’s central location, lower cost of living and relatively low tax burden position the state to continue to attract new investment. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which supplies power to Tennessee and helps promote the 7-state Tennessee Valley, said it has helped recruit $7.1 billion of new investment and added 58,400 jobs during the first nine months of fiscal 2020.
The UT survey found that nearly one of every six employers in Tennessee have added employees in the past three months.