Special Questions
Special Questions
Texas Business Outlook Surveys
Data were collected September 12-20 and 362 Texas business executives responded to the surveys.
Feb. '20 (percent) |
Aug. '20 (percent) |
Feb. '21 (percent) |
Apr. '22 (percent) |
Sep. '23 (percent) |
|
Total | 8.3 | 35.0 | 35.2 | 39.3 | 32.1 |
Fully remote | 15.6 | 14.4 | |||
Hybrid | 23.6 | 17.7 |
NOTES: 335 responses. Shown are averages, calculated as the mean of received responses. Prior to Apr. '22 respondents were not asked to break out fully remote versus hybrid, and responses could be lower as a result if respondents had in mind only workers working mostly remotely. Responses for Feb. '20 are from an Aug. '20 question asking, "What share of your employees were working remotely in February (pre-COVID-19)?"
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Increased productivity | 9.4 |
No change in productivity | 56.9 |
Decreased productivity | 24.3 |
Don't know | 9.4 |
NOTES: 181 responses. These calculations exclude respondents that answered “Not applicable; our share of remote employees has not increased,” which represented 47.5 percent of responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Yes | 19.3 |
No | 45.3 |
Don't know | 35.4 |
NOTES: 353 responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Positive | 58.8 |
Negative | 41.2 |
NOTE: 68 responses.
Survey respondents were given the opportunity to also provide comments, which can be found in the Comments tab above.
Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey
Data were collected September 12-20 and 88 Texas manufacturers responded to the survey.
Feb. '20 (percent) |
Aug. '20 (percent) |
Feb. '21 (percent) |
Apr. '22 (percent) |
Sep. '23 (percent) |
|
Total | 4.9 | 20.4 | 17.2 | 17.3 | 9.9 |
Fully remote | 5.4 | 4.0 | |||
Hybrid | 12.0 | 5.9 |
NOTES: 82 responses. Shown are averages, calculated as the mean of received responses. Prior to Apr. '22 respondents were not asked to break out fully remote versus hybrid, and responses could be lower as a result if respondents had in mind only workers working mostly remotely. Responses for Feb. '20 are from an Aug. '20 question asking, "What share of your employees were working remotely in February (pre-COVID-19)?"
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Increased productivity | 5.7 |
No change in productivity | 57.1 |
Decreased productivity | 25.7 |
Don't know | 11.4 |
NOTES: 35 responses. These calculations exclude respondents that answered “Not applicable; our share of remote employees has not increased,” which represented 57.8 percent of responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Yes | 23.0 |
No | 39.1 |
Don't know | 37.9 |
NOTES: 87 responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Positive | 65.0 |
Negative | 35.0 |
NOTE: 20 responses.
Chemical manufacturing
- Additional business and funding for energy transition projects.
- The IRA not so much; the CHIPS Act and the IIJA could directly impact our business in a positive way for capital investment and domestic sales.
Primary metal manufacturing
- We have seen slight increases related to these legislative initiatives; however, they have been overshadowed by several other factors.
- May pay for needed new equipment. Maybe more business as we supply parts for solar panels.
Fabricated metal product manufacturing
- Infrastructure investment is always good for our business.
- Future business opportunity, although it may be further out than one year.
Computer and electronic product manufacturing
- We expect spend on infrastructure to increase our customers' purchases.
- CHIPS Act is helping to put U.S. on the same playing field as most other regions of the world.
- Infrastructure investment.
Food manufacturing
- The IRA has driven inflation, which has hurt the average consumer who is our primary customer in the food business.
Wood product manufacturing
- Government spending is always bad. It is what caused the inflation, not the Fed [Federal Reserve].
Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing
- We are paying a lot more interest to finance our receivables.
Fabricated metal product manufacturing
- We are a small manufacturer of heat exchangers, and the new regulations on refrigeration and HVAC [Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning] systems will increase costs significantly. The large corporations got tax breaks and stimulus money from IRA, CHIPS and IIJA. Small, privately held businesses like mine did not get any assistance. The government is about to impose a huge tax increase on small businesses by allowing existing tax rates to expire.
Machinery manufacturing
- Inflation.
Transportation equipment manufacturing
- Fraud program hyping green at the detriment of the economy.
Miscellaneous manufacturing
- Higher debt and higher taxes.
Texas Service Sector Outlook Survey
Data were collected September 12-20 and 274 Texas business executives responded to the survey.
Feb. '20 (percent) |
Aug. '20 (percent) |
Feb. '21 (percent) |
Apr. '22 (percent) |
Sep. '23 (percent) |
|
Total | 9.5 | 40.4 | 42.2 | 47.1 | 39.4 |
Fully remote | 19.4 | 17.8 | |||
Hybrid | 27.7 | 21.6 |
NOTES: 253 responses. Shown are averages, calculated as the mean of received responses. Prior to Apr. '22 respondents were not asked to break out fully remote versus hybrid, and responses could be lower as a result if respondents had in mind only workers working mostly remotely. Responses for Feb. '20 are from an Aug. '20 question asking, "What share of your employees were working remotely in February (pre-COVID-19)?"
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Increased productivity | 10.3 |
No change in productivity | 56.8 |
Decreased productivity | 24.0 |
Don't know | 8.69 |
NOTES: 146 responses. These calculations exclude respondents that answered “Not applicable; our share of remote employees has not increased,” which represented 44.3 percent of responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Yes | 18.0 |
No | 47.4 |
Don't know | 34.6 |
NOTES: 266 responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Positive | 56.3 |
Negative | 43.8 |
NOTE: 48 responses.
Utilities
- It drives our business.
Transit and ground passenger transportation
- More available federal grants.
Credit intermediation and related activities
- We hope to receive some grants from the IRA.
Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities
- The energy components of IIJA will likely increase some advisory assignments that we do.
- Potential tax credits may accelerate the adoption of innovative construction technology.
Insurance carriers and related activities
- Increase construction of fabrication plants for a large customer of ours.
Real estate
- We should see some future construction projects as a result of the CHIPS Act.
Professional, scientific and technical services
- We expect to have requests from clients for more services to help them react to the legislation.
- We think it will bring more manufacturing to North America.
- Our firm does professional services and planning work in part supported by IIJA and IRA.
- More projects mean potential for more work in consulting. It is a slow process, so nothing immediate is expected.
- If inflation is held in check, it should flow through to our suppliers in preventing cost increases.
- Positive in terms of potential but no actual economic impact felt yet. More talk and no real implementation that translates into work and revenue.
Administrative and support services
- Generating increased level of investment activity.
- Will likely increase demand for employment services and training.
Educational services
- We expect the CHIPS Act to generate research funding and grants.
Support activities for mining
- Increased uncertainty. Provided money and incentives to competitors. The government should not be funding to ensure winners and losers in the market.
Data processing, hosting and related services
- The spending from these acts is causing inflation to rise and regulation that hurts businesses instead of helps them.
Credit intermediation and related activities
- Incentive to save for retirement is being undermined and will impact the future welfare of retirees.
Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities
- Inflation Reduction Act served to spur inflation, thereby slowing the rate of the decrease in inflation.
Professional, scientific and technical services
- Anything that artificially increases demand for materials makes pricing unpredictable.
- Inflation has increased due to all these acts/laws, which is affecting our business.
- Companies are holding cash.
Management of companies and enterprises
- IRA will further drive increases to salaries/compensation.
Administrative and support services
- Affecting product costs.
Amusement, gambling and recreation industries
- Increasing costs that cannot be passed on to the consumer. Weather also is dominating costs, so the combination of these two is going to be catastrophic.
Texas Retail Outlook Survey
Data were collected September 12-20 and 54 Texas retailers responded to the survey.
Feb. '20 (percent) |
Aug. '20 (percent) |
Feb. '21 (percent) |
Apr. '22 (percent) |
Sep. '23 (percent) |
|
Total | 6.0 | 21.2 | 28.4 | 28.6 | 21.3 |
Fully remote | 17.7 | 15.1 | |||
Hybrid | 10.9 | 6.3 |
NOTES: 48 responses. Shown are averages, calculated as the mean of received responses. Prior to Apr. '22 respondents were not asked to break out fully remote versus hybrid, and responses could be lower as a result if respondents had in mind only workers working mostly remotely. Responses for Feb. '20 are from an Aug. '20 question asking, "What share of your employees were working remotely in February (pre-COVID-19)?"
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Increased productivity | 0.0 |
No change in productivity | 50.0 |
Decreased productivity | 37.5 |
Don't know | 12.5 |
NOTES: 16 responses. These calculations exclude respondents that answered “Not applicable; our share of remote employees has not increased,” which represented 68.0 percent of responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Yes | 11.8 |
No | 37.3 |
Don't know | 51.0 |
NOTES: 51 responses.
Sept. '23 (percent) |
|
Positive | 33.3 |
Negative | 66.7 |
NOTE: 6 responses.
Merchant wholesalers, durable goods
- Growth in infrastructure and moves to alternative energy sources have expanded our business opportunity and share of spending by our customers.
Motor vehicle and parts dealers
- Electric vehicles tax credit for lease customers provides opportunity to expand the EV leasing business.
- Should increase overall business activity, which will increase our business.
Nonstore Retailers
- The Inflation Reduction Act has increased inflation.
Questions regarding the Texas Business Outlook Surveys can be addressed to Emily Kerr at emily.kerr@dal.frb.org.
Sign up for our email alert to be automatically notified as soon as the latest surveys are released on the web.
Special Questions Comments
These comments have been edited for publication.