U.S. Middle Market Companies Confident about Business Growth in Year Ahead Despite Concerns about Slowing Economy

July 30 - Business Wire - Sixty-four percent of U.S. middle market companies, with revenues between $25 million and $1 billion, are predicting growth over the next 12 months, even though nearly 60% believe the U.S. economy will slow down, according to a new study from the Economist Intelligence Unit and CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading global commercial and consumer finance company. Respondents also indicated that a “shortage of talented staff” and high “labor costs” were the top two challenges to achieving this growth.

The study, "Perspectives from America’s Economic Engine: The CIT U.S. Middle Market Outlook 2007,” surveyed more than 500 senior financial decision-makers at companies with revenues between $25 million and $1 billion. According to the most recent U.S. Census, the middle market accounts for more than $6 trillion in sales and employs almost 32 million Americans, which is more than twice the revenues and four times the number of employees of the blue-chip companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Read More.