Radio Interview Transcript

Air Date: 
October 15, 2004

Channel:
KOMO AM Radio  10:48am

Subject Matter:
Business Owner Confidence Survey

Reporter:
Bill Rice & Nancy Barrack

Nancy Barrack:  Well a new survey is out about how confident local businesses are feeling about the economy.  It’s a pretty optimistic report.

Bill Rice:  And joining us on the KOMO 1000 news line on this Friday morning is Bob Gruber, President of The Rainier Group.  Good morning Bob.

Bob Gruber (Rainier Group):  Good morning Bill, good morning Nancy.

Bill Rice:  So, who did you survey and what are they saying?

Bob Gruber:  Well we surveyed approximately a hundred twenty five owners of larger private companies in the Pacific Northwest and the main message that we received from the survey is that the level of business confidence among those owners of those privately held companies located primarily in Washington and Oregon, has improved dramatically over the last twelve months.  Indicative of that is the following; and that is a year ago when we put out this survey, thirty-two percent of the respondents indicated that they planned to increase their workforce.  Today, fifty-two percent plan to hire over the course of the next six months.  And that’s an improvement of over sixty percent, which by any measure, is very significant.

Nancy Barrack:  Yeah, jobs have been a major concern around here.  So they’re feeling optimistic or feeling confident that means they’re ready to expand or what?

Bob Gruber:  Yes it does.  In other words, what we typically look at is what is the planned hiring pattern?  What is the planned capital expenditure pattern?  And in both cases, we are seeing an intent to increase both hiring and also capital expenditures.  Now where that’s coming from primarily is the following; one of the questions we posed to these folks is what do you anticipate happening to your revenues and profits over the next six months.  Eighty percent of them anticipate that their revenues are going to increase and seventy-five percent of them anticipate higher profits.  And in that type of an environment, increased hiring and increased capital expenditures will always take place.

Bill Rice:  Bob, any particular areas that you’re seeing that are really ready just to break out?

Bob Gruber:  No this pretty much covered most business sectors, it was a fairly wide spectrum.  There was no particular sector that stood out.

Nancy Barrack:  And then as far as the upcoming election, did you get any data on that? 

Bob Gruber:  Well, predictably, the majority of owners of private companies are Republican and seventy-four percent believe that President Bush would create a favorable economic environment.  Twelve percent were in favor of Senator Kerry and twelve percent were undecided and I don’t know what happened to the other two percent.

Bill Rice:  Alright, that’s Bob Gruber, President of The Rainier Group with some very encouraging news as far as the local economy.

Nancy Barrack:  Like we said, it’s been a long time coming. 

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