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CFOs are just like you: They’re stressed about the election.
That’s according to Deloitte’s latest CFO Signals survey, a poll of more than 200 CFOs at organizations with at least $1 billion in revenue, which found that 58% of CFOs expect the result of the US presidential election to be “extremely or very consequential for their organizations.” The survey was fielded from mid to late July, and you might recall some notable political events that happened right around then.
Still, we’re deeply envious of the 3% of no-thoughts-just-vibes CFOs who said the election outcome won’t be at all consequential to them. Their sleep schedules must be things of beauty.
Unlike 2016 and 2020, election years when Deloitte found CFOs were most worried about tax policy, this time around, workforce issues emerged as the most top-of-mind concern: A third of CFOs said they should be a peak priority for the federal government.
“The high ranking of workforce-related issues might reflect trepidation about several recent proposals and actions, including the Department of Labor’s update of the independent contractor standard,” the survey’s authors noted.
But no matter how many times we’ve heard “unprecedented” and “now more than ever” thrown around since 2020, some things stayed the same-ish. Corporate taxes were still a primary concern for CFOs. Though geopolitics and the economic environment were the top two issues that respondents said they’re monitoring, next up were trade policy and tariffs—39% of respondents identified it as a key issue—and changes to corporate and individual tax policy (37%).
And when asked which economic issue would have the most significant impact on their overall operating environment, 20% of CFOs said tariffs and 16% said tax policy, which, when combined, topped other concerns like inflation and interest rates.
In general, though, CFOs don’t have a particularly rosy outlook right now. Only 14% of respondents considered the North American economy currently “good,” and just 19% thought it would improve in a year.
We’d love to get their thoughts again after November 5.