A good chunk of Capital District businesses experienced growth in 2011 and the rest of 2012 is expected to bring a repeat of that trend, according to a Business Climate Survey conducted annually by Marvin and Company, P.C. and the University of Albany School of Business.
According to the survey, released Tuesday, Feb. 28, nearly half of local employers are forecasting business growth in 2012 and 95 percent expect employment levels to either increase or remain stable.
Of the 2,300 Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce members, 45.4 percent said overall business increased in 2011, with 30.1 percent saying it remained stable and 24.5 percent saying it decreased.
“Obviously, we’ve gone through a couple years of a really downturned economy and a lot of businesses in 2009 and 2010 had really scaled back on expenses, many through attrition, lost staff, froze salaries, to really survive the recession,” said Mark Eagan, president of the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce. “What we heard is because they were so lean and business started to grow, they were able to experience up to the bottom line.”
Business in Saratoga also increased in 2011, with 49.5 percent of members in the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce recording an increase in business and 48.9 percent of members in the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County reporting an increase.
“I’m excited that business is beginning to pick up around here and I attribute it to the overall strength of the Capital Region in general,” said Pete Bardunias, president and CEO of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County. “This is a healthy area, as well as increased activity due to the tech park and work being done to bring new manufacturing opportunities to this region.”
GlobalFoundries nearing a factory opening and other companies and organizations seeing opportunities and moving into the area are some reasons Bardunias said he thinks 58.1 percent of his members expect business to increase in 2012 and why 53.5 percent said they expect the Capital Region’s economy as a whole to prosper in the next several years.
“It’s like a snowball, it just keeps growing and growing,” said Bardunias.
Bardunias said in 2011, chamber membership was up 4 percent and in just the first two months of 2012, membership has already increased 2.5 percent. Thriving businesses also helps the chamber function better, he said.
“We are really excited about where the chamber’s headed. When members are doing well, it means they participate more, they’re more eager to try more programs and new things,” said Bardunias.
Colonie Chamber of Commerce members seem a bit warier about 2011 and 2012, according to the survey. In 2011, 37.8 percent of businesses recorded an increase in business while 37.9 percent recorded a decrease and 24.3 percent said business remained stable.
Tom Nolte, president of the Colonie Chamber of Commerce, said based on what he’s hearing from his members, the challenges are starting to ease, but they’re still there.
“We represent a majority of small- to medium-size businesses. … They’re starting to see that light at the end of the tunnel but with that they’ve had to make some tough decisions over the past few years,” said Nolte.
Still, 46 percent believe their business would increase in 2012, something Nolte said is possible because of how they’ve adjusted business practices.
“I think for a lot of them, it’s really made them run their business smarter and look at every single aspect of their business, which you have to do as small businessperson anyway,” said Nolte.
For the second time in only 17 years, Capital District businesses ranked the national economy ahead of rising health care costs as their primary business concern.
“I think across the board, the top four concerns were pretty universal, locally and probably on a national level … taxes, government regulations, national economy and healthcare costs,” said Nolte.
Eagan said he thinks the Capital District is better positioned to weather the struggling national economy and even grow when compared to other areas of the state and country.
“Our unemployment numbers never got very high. Our region is not just dependent on private sector jobs … so we were fortunate enough to have private sector business growth,” said Eagan. “As we look ahead and ways we continue to diversify our economy and grow our technology sector, we’re better positioned … for sustainable growth.”
The Business Climate Survey has been distributed to Capital District chambers for 26 years and is equally helpful to them as it is to the public, said Nolte.
“This is a very important tool for us at the chamber because we utilize this survey to put together programming because it speaks to us on what’s on our members’ minds, what’s important to them,” said Nolte.
According to the total survey area, 43.6 percent of respondents characterized the Capital Region’s economy as recovering, 44.8 percent expected it to prosper in the next several years and 43.1 percent recorded an inc
