Mississippi Most Optimistic on Payrolls, Montana Least

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Nice article from the folks at Lending Tree analyzing the data from the US Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey. According to their analysis, Mississippi is the state with the highest percentages of businesses that anticipate increasing payrolls, with 16.2% expecting to add headcount over the next six months. At the other end of the spectrum, Montana seems to have the least optimistic businesses, with 17.7% expecting to reduce employment over the same period. The authors of the study suggest a political element in the results and point out  that “a red state/blue state divide is clear in business optimism”, as most of the states with the highest level of business optimism voted Republican in 2024, while the majority of the most pessimistic states voted Democratic. The article has a nice level of detail without being too dense, and contains some instructive graphics. It’s a quick but very informative read.   

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