AIM: Biz confidence hits 2017 high
Courtesy/Insulet
Insulet has started construction at this Acton facility. Business confidence has hit a 2017 high, driven by employment growth in manufacturing, according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
Confidence by Massachusetts businesses hit another high, as the Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index rose another 0.3 points in October.
That brings the mark to 62.7, a 6.5-point increase from October 2016.
That increase was driven by a brightened view of employment growth and firming confidence among manufacturers, AIM wrote in a blog post Tuesday.
“The acceleration of the Massachusetts economy in the third quarter provided additional fuel to an already solid sense of confidence among employers as we head for 2018,” Raymond Torto, chair of AIM's Board of Economic Advisors, said in the post.
Torto added the state’s economy could increase much further if Congress lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, as proposesd in President Donald Trump's tax plan.
According to AIM, a score of 50 is neutral, the lowest was 33.3 in 2009 and the highest was 68.5 in 1997-98. The index has remained above 50 since October 2013 and hasn’t gone below 60 since last November.
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