The Grant Thornton Business Optimism Index is a quarterly confidence measure of U.S. business leaders. The Index is a composite score for three questions:
- U.S. economy: Do you feel the U.S. economy will improve/remain the same/get worse in the next six months?
- Business growth: How optimistic are you about the growth of your own business over the next six months – very/somewhat optimistic/pessimistic?
- Employment: Do you expect the number of people you employ will increase/remain the same/decrease in the next six months?
Each response is assigned a value of -1 (get worse, very pessimistic, decrease), 0 (remain the same, somewhat optimistic/pessimistic), or +1 (improve, very optimistic, increase). The Business Optimism Index is the aggregate of these three measures, indexed to a scale from 0 to 100.
The fourth-quarter survey was conducted in November/December 2011 by an outside polling organization, with 379 senior executives from various industries across the country responding.
- Read the press release on the November/December 2011 survey findings.
What public policy initiatives would make you most optimistic about our country’s future?
In addition to the regular three Business Optimism Index questions, Grant Thornton asked senior U.S. business executives what public policy initiative would make them most optimistic about our country’s future if adopted. Click here to see the results.
Fourth-quarter 2011 results
Index |
| U.S. economy  |
Business growth  |
Business growth --Trend chart  Employment  |
