Texas Business Outlook Surveys
Data were collected March 17–25, and 315 Texas business executives responded to the surveys.
1a. What percent change in wages, input prices and selling prices did your firm experience over the past 12 months?
Wage growth held steady while price growth accelerated. Texas firms surveyed report wage growth of 3.5 percent over the past 12 months, on average, 4.3 percent growth in input prices and 2.7 percent growth in selling prices. The recent pickup in price growth is largely driven by the manufacturing sector.
1b. What percent change in wages, input prices and selling prices do you expect over the next 12 months?
Wage growth expectations continued to ease while price growth expectations reversed trend and moved up. Texas firms surveyed expect wages to increase 3.1 percent over the next 12 months, on average. They expect input prices to increase 3.9 percent and selling prices to increase 2.8 percent. The pickup in expectations for input price growth was broad based across sectors, while the uptick in expectations for selling price growth was limited to the manufacturing sector.
2. What are the primary concerns around your firm’s outlook over the next six months, if any? Please select up to three.
Geopolitical uncertainty became the top outlook concern among Texas firms surveyed, and the share citing it as a top-three concern jumped to 57 percent. Demand and inflation remained high on the list of outlook concerns. The share of firms citing supply-chain disruptions rose notably in March, to 18 percent. Among manufacturers the share was higher, 32 percent.
Survey respondents were given the opportunity to also provide comments, which can be found in the Comments tab above.
