Following a year marked by banking industry disruption, geopolitical risks and sustained macroeconomic challenges, small and midsize business leaders are sharing a more balanced outlook heading into 2024, while pulling back from previous predictions of a near-term recession, according to JPMorgan Chase’s 2024 Business Leaders Outlook survey.
Expectations for a recession, widely held by both small and midsize business leaders at the start of 2023, have moderated following a year of better-than-expected economic growth. In the new survey, 40 percent of midsize and 51 percent of small business leaders anticipate a recession in 2024, or believe we’re already in one, down from 65 percent and 61 percent respectively, one year ago. However, almost as many midsize business leaders (38 percent) say they don’t anticipate a recession in the year ahead, while 30 percent of small business leaders don’t anticipate a recession.
Amid mixed economic signals, midsize bu