Global CFOs Predict Continued Staggering Pain and Loss

The Economic Times highlights a Duke University/CFO magazine study today and the news is not good. CFOs around the world expect the recession to last well into 2010. Surveyors reported “record levels of gloom.”

Among the industries surveyed, service and consulting firms forecast the strongest earnings in 2009, followed by health-care companies. But the rest of the industries out there are not so hopeful. American CFOs said their companies were planning dramatic cuts in employment and in spending over the next year, with anticipated layoffs of nearly 6 percent of their workforces – a loss of 7.6 million jobs. More than half said their firms expected to freeze or cut wages, according to the Economic Times.

Those polled say earnings of publicly-held companies over the next year will drop by 22 percent in the United States, 11 percent in Europe and 9 percent at Asia. On a scale of zero to 100, US respondents rated the economic outlook at an all-time low of 40. European CFOs put it at 43 and Asian respondents at 47.

And while most U.S. respondents expected the recession to last another 14 months, European CFOs said it would last 16 more months and Asians another 13 months. Where will see the biggest cuts? Global CFOs say they expect capital spending and spending on technology, marketing and advertising to drop.

But what do you think? When will the recession end? Email and let us know.