Business leaders in Tennessee are far more optimistic about the economic outlook this year in their own state than for the country as a whole, according to a University of Tennessee study released Monday.
Among more than 160 employers surveyed across the Volunteer State in January, 72% said they expect the state’s economic conditions to improve over the next year, or nearly three times the number that expects the U.S. economy as a whole to get better.
Don Bruce, the director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, which conducted the semiannual business survey, said the business sentiments mirror the outlook his staff projects for Tennessee and the U.S. economy in 2023.
“The continued growth in jobs in Tennessee, the record number of business startups and the investments being made by new and expanding businesses in the state all point to a Tennessee economy that is vastly better than the national economy,” Bruce said in a telephone interview Monday.
In its annual economic forecast to the governor earlier this year, the Boyd Center predicted that Tennessee will avoid a recession this year and grow another 0.7% for all of 2023. Nationwide, UT economists predict the U.S. economy is projected to decline by 0.2% for all of 2023.