The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (the Foundation) releases the November 2021 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI) today. The index reports a qualitative assessment of both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives from the $900 billion equipment finance sector. Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market is 64.6, an increase from the October index of 61.1.
“While I believe the equipment leasing and finance Industry will always perform well through various cycles, the last few months have shown a number of interesting data points. Strong corporate earnings continue to drive the equity markets,” says survey respondent Dave Fate, chief executive officer, Stonebriar Commercial Finance. “The current rise in inflation rates is alarming and seems like it will be with us for a while. Continued issues with the lack of skilled and non-skilled labor are the number one concern of most of our customers. Supply chain issues are causing real disruption and seem to have no viable plan to alleviate them. The rest of Q4 and into Q1 will be very interesting as we navigate through year-end closing in our industry and the Christmas holiday season.”
Other findings:
- When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 34.6% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, up from 25.9% in October. 46.2% believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, down from 70.4% the previous month. 19.2% believe business conditions will worsen, up from 3.7% in October.
- When asked, 53.9% of the executives report they expect to hire more employees over the next four months, up from 40.7% in October. 46.2% expect no change in headcount over the next four months, a decrease from 59.3% last month. None expect to hire fewer employees, unchanged from October.
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