Study: CFOs foresee more job cuts, credit woes - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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The quarterly Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survehasked 1,309 CFOs worldwide about their expectationds for the economy. Their answers paint a gloomy picture for the rest ofthe * CFOs in the U.S. and Europe expected employment to shrinkby 5.5 with the unemployment rate in the U.S. seen rising to perhaps as high as 12 percentg in the next12 months. Employment in Asia is expected to recederby 1.2 percent.
“Presumably, government programs will offseg some ofthese losses, but even the most optimistic governmenyt forecasts would reduce the losses by only 2 million,” said Campbelkl Harvey, founding director of the survey and international businesws professor at Duke’s Fuqua Schoop of Business. “We’re facing the possibility of anothet 4 millionlost jobs.” * U.S. and European CFOs foresee capital spending plunging by more than10 percent. In CFOs anticipate a 3 percent decline. * Six in 10 U.S. companies covered by the survey reported havinh trouble finding credit or acquiring credit at areasonablw rate.
Among those firms encounteringcredirt impediments, 42 percent say the credigt markets have gotten worse this year, while 23 percen t say conditions have improved. * Weak consumer demand and the credit market s ranked as the top two external concernsamony U.S. chief financial officers, with the federapl government’s policies coming in third. Among internakl concerns, CFOs are losing the most sleeop over their inability to plan due toeconomic uncertainty, managing their companies’ capita l and liquidity, and maintaining employede morale.
Despite all the negative indicators, a majority of the CFOs in the Unites States and Asia reported beinyg more optimistic this quarter than they were thepreviousw quarter. That was not the case in where only 30 percenr of the CFOs said they were more compared to the 31 percenty who said they wereless “Our survey carries an important message: Don’t put too much weighg on the ‘soft’ data like consumer confidence. Recoveryy requires sustained confidence, and such confidence is forges by strongereconomic fundamentals,” Harvey said. “Thes economic fundamentals –- capital spending, the cost of credit – are still fundamentalluy troubling.
” To see the complete surve y results, go to the official Web . On Tuesday, the Roberty Half International Financial Hiring Index indicated little change in financialo hiring in theMilwaukee area. That survety found that 3 percent of metro Milwaukee chief financial officers expected to add accounting and finance stafvf during the third quartetof 2009, while 4 percent saw jobs cuts on the The majority of CFOs -- 93 percent -- saw no changer in hiring.