The overall Economic downturn is by far still the biggest problem facing Valley businesses, according to an annual survey released by the Valley Economic Alliance and California State University, Northridge. But many of these same firms see hope on the horizon. According to the survey of medium-sized companies (those with 50 to 100 employees), 47.6 percent of those responding said the economy was their No. 1 problem. Virtually no one cited any secondary issue that concerned them. About three-fourths of Valley businesses anticipate no change over the next year in facilities or employee compensation, which in a sense is good news due to the contraction by some businesses in the past few years. “There’s a recovery out there; it’s slow,” said William Roberts, director of the Economic Research Center at CSUN and the presenter of the study at the Valley Economic Summit. Although sales were down last year for almost two-thirds of Valley businesses, 80 percent of Valley businesses anticipate unchanged or increased sales in the coming twelve months. The 2010 survey was conducted by California Survey Research Services. That firm contacted over 500 companies completing 85 interviews. They were asked to identify the most pressing issues for them and asked questions concerning competition, employment, sales and costs. Medium-sized businesses were selected for the survey because they are large enough to require systematic planning but are unlikely to be so large that they are influenced by events outside the Valley. Some of the other findings of the survey include: • For the coming year, 57.1 percent of firms expect their workforce to stay the same over 2010, 27.4 percent expect to add workers and only 15.5 percent expect a decline. • health care costs will remain a major worry for businesses in the coming year as 55 percent expect cost increases to continue in 2010. The survey also asked whether business owners were considering moving their operations out of the Valley sometime in the next two years. Most (77 percent) said no. Of the 23 percent of businesses considering moving, 53 percent said they were considering moving out of state. Why do most business owners say that they’re not considering moving despite complaints of a high cost of doing business in L.A. and California? “Location, location,” Roberts said. In other words, 61 percent said the Valley’s location in terms of proximity to workers, market and shipping facilities kept them here. Many said they liked being near a large bilingual pool of workers.