Canada’s CEOs are confident their companies will perform financially better in 2003 than they did last year, according to a KPMG-sponsored study conducted by Ipsos-Reid.

The survey found that 50% of CEOs are also confident their workforce will continue to expand over the next two years; 14% expect workforce downsizing. While encouraging, this optimistic view of expansion has been declining steadily, down from 62% in 1999.

Seventy-one per cent of CEOs believe their company will perform better financially in 2003 compared to last year (up from 64% in 2001 but lower than the 85% who expressed this view in 2000, and 75% in 1999). Only 8% indicate the financial outlook will likely be worse than last year (down from 18% in 2001), and 21% (up from 18% in 2001) see no change from last year.

Fifty per cent of CEOs indicate they will be expanding over the next two years, reflecting a continued and steady decline in expectations since 1999 when 62% indicated workplace expansion plans, followed by 63% in 2000 and 57% in 2001. 14% of CEOs will consider downsizing in their plans for the next two years, a number that has remained consistent for the last four years.

Forty-six per cent of CEOs indicate they will be increasing their business spending over the next 12 months (down from 52% in 2001); 16% of CEOs indicate that business spending is likely to decrease (statistically unchanged from 17% in 2001); 37% of CEOs indicate their business spending will likely remain the same (up from 29% in 2001).

The survey was conducted between August 6 and November 30, 2002. The survey involved a randomly selected sample of 314 leading CEOs in Canada. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within (+/-) 4.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.