Indsutry Week analyzed conference call transcripts of a 50-member cross-section of their IndustryWeek U.S. 500 list of publicly traded companies. They were looking for forward-looking sentiments about four key factors: inflation, labor, supply chains and demand. Executives’ comments were classified into one of five buckets: fully positive, slightly positive, neutral, slightly negative and fully negative. Some of those comments centred on fourth-quarter dynamics while some provided first glimpses into 2023.

All in all, there were 164 expressions of confidence, frustration, fear or pessimism to categorize. Indsutry Week weighted each ‘fully positive’ or ‘fully negative’ response at 100% and each ‘slightly’ comment at 50%, then calculated the average. That methodology means that every single company responding ‘fully positive’ would produce a score of 1 while 50 ‘slightly negative’ responses would result in a -0.5 score. A perfectly evenly distributed set of responses ends up with score of zero.

Here’s how the numbers broke down:

  • Inflation: -0.42
  • Labour: -0.14
  • Supply Chains: -0.17
  • Demand: 0.29

To view the full report and context for the responses, visit the Industry Week website. 

Source: Industry Week