Confidence up slightly among Westchester businesses

Westchester County business owners are expecting increased revenues over the next six months to result in more hiring, according to the Westchester Business Confidence Index for the second quarter of 2012.

The index, a gauge of confidence among the 100-plus business owners who responded to the survey, rose to 65.9 from 64.8 in the first quarter of 2012, just 0.4 point from the all-time high.

The index is scaled from one to 100, with any number above 50 indicating more optimism than pessimism, and it takes into account revenue, income, capital expenditures, hiring plans and other data across a broad swath of industries and businesses.

DataKey Consulting L.L.C., based in Mount Kisco, and the Business Council of Westchester have compiled the index every quarter since the fourth quarter of 2008.

There was a 50 percent jump in the number of companies reporting new openings this past quarter, said Ted Miller, founder and president of DataKey Consulting.

“The fact that they are opening up … is a pretty strong indicator that they”™ve got confidence in the near term, otherwise they wouldn”™t be hiring,” Miller said.

In all, 87 percent of the companies said they either have the same number of openings or more openings than they did three months ago.

The expectation of increased hiring is likely the result of higher revenue expectations across the board, the data suggested.

Revenue projections were up, with 79 percent of the companies expecting increased revenue compared with the second quarter of 2011.

That number represents a significant jump from just one quarter ago, when 59 percent of respondents said they expected higher quarterly revenue than one year prior.

Likewise, profit expectations were higher, with the number of companies expecting higher profits up 14 percent from the first quarter 2012 survey.

John Ravitz, executive vice president and COO of the Business Council, said the indication is that businesses are moving from a period of very limited expansion to one of tentative ”“ but accelerating ”“ growth.

“We”™re seeing a little more breathing room for folks to be able to say, ”˜We can now start looking at this project and start bringing on more people,”™” he said.

Confidence among the county”™s business owners appears to have made a complete recovery since the index tumbled from 66.3 to 41.6 in the third quarter of last year on concerns about the national deficit and the European debt crisis.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were more confident than they had been one year ago, and 44 percent said they were more confident than they had been just three months ago.

“We need to keep that momentum going and keep that confidence level up,” Ravitz said.