Arkansas Inc. Tanc 3Q Results Revealed

According to a survey of business leaders in Arkansas, during the third quarter 61 percent of companies expected to maintain their current staff levels.

About 21 percent expected to add staff, while only 10 percent expected to cut staff.

The survey, dubbed Inc. Tanc as a play on the term “Think Tank,” is a partnership between Arkansas Business (sister publication to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal) and MarketSearch (a division of the Mangan Holcomb ad agency of Little Rock).

A total of 860 Arkansas decision makers participated in the third quarter survey.

Year-end revenue expectations were positive:

32 percent of respondents expected to remain stable; 24 percent expected to be up; 12 percent expected to be down by 10 percent or more; and 10 percent of the respondents expected to be down by 3 percent or more.

However, 29 percent expected to freeze current pay levels and 20 percent said they expected to raise salaries at the rate of inflation. Twenty-seven percent said they would raise salaries below the rate of inflation.

Even in the wake of the shooting of Arkansas State Democratic Party Chair Bill Gwantey, 54 percent of respondents said they were confident with their current security procedures, while 26 percent have no established security and 7 percent were considering changing their procedures.

About 43 percent of the respondents said they had disaster continuation plans, 21 percent had plans that need reviewing and 27 percent had no plans at all.