Only This Devastatingly Small Percentage of CEOs Plan to Hire and Expand in 2020, New Survey Says

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How is our economy going to look over the next 12 months? It's a question no one has the answer to yet. But one recent survey of CEOs is attempting to predict how small and mid-sized businesses will behave as 2020 plays out. 

Vistage — a peer mentoring membership organization for CEOs, business owners and executives — surveyed over 1,500 CEOs on how COVID has impacted their businesses and how they expect those impacts to affect revenue and hiring. 

37% of the CEOs reported that they plan to decrease their workforce in the next year.

Six percent of the CEOs have seen revenues collapse by 75% or more, while 21%  have seen revenue decline between 25% and 75%. Another 44% say revenue was down by up to 25%. 

However, there is hope that organizations of this size will be hiring in small numbers, even if the majority have seen cash flow shrink. 

84% of the surveyed CEOs plan on taking advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program. And 19% of CEOs say they plan to increase their workforce in the next 12 months and will be actively hiring. 42% said they expect their firm's total number of employees to stay the same.