Ticker: Bay State business confidence slips; Booking.com cuts thousands of jobs

Reversing direction after two months of gains, confidence among Massachusetts employers declined in July, with optimism about the state economy overshadowed by a more significant degree of pessimism over the national economy due to the damage that COVID-19 is inflicting on jobs, business and commerce.

Associated Industries of Massachusetts reported Tuesday that its overall business confidence index fell 3.2 points to 45.8, which is 16.2 points lower than this time last year. Index readings below 50 reflect a predominantly pessimistic outlook. The Massachusetts index rose 2 points in July while the national index fell 6.5 points.

“Businesses continue to face uncertainty around both the public-health crisis with COVID-19 and the economic crisis brought about by shutdowns and stay-at-home orders,” said Raymond Torto, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors. “The uncertainty will only intensify as cities and towns debate what to do about opening schools in September.”

AIM President and CEO John Regan said the business group is monitoring federal financial support to the unemployment insurance system, which could help to moderate unemployment tax increases for employers, who are facing a $6.6 billion deficit in the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund in the coming years.

Booking.com cuts workforce by thousands

Booking.com is laying off a quarter of its workforce — more than 4,000 people — with the global pandemic snuffing out travel.

Layoffs will begin next month and run through the end of the year, according to parent company Booking Holdings Inc.

Booking Holdings, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, also owns the restaurant reservation company OpenTable and Priceline.com.

The number of room reserved at Booking.com during the first quarter of this year tumbled 43%, to 124 million.

The number of people passing through U.S. airport checkpoints is running about 70% lower than a year ago, according to figures from the Transportation Security Administration. Travel plunged about 95% by mid-April, then rose steadily until leveling off throughout July.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3gFTiLy