The US is showing promising signs of recovery despite hitting record daily increases in coronavirus infections in recent weeks. The economy grew in the third quarter by 7.4 per cent and in September unemployment dropped to 7.9 per cent, down from a high of 14.7 per cent in April.
To get a sense of the recovery progress and how Swedish companies in the US market are coping with the fall-out of Covid-19, Team Sweden (Business Sweden, The Embassy of Sweden and the Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce) carried out a follow-up survey among 70 management level executives operating across 20 sectors in all parts of the country.
A clear sense of optimism was echoed by all respondents with seven out of 10 companies reporting they have fully recovered or are in a recovery phase. Over 25 per cent of Swedish companies confirm their performance is back at pre-pandemic levels, and one out of ten respondents have expanded their business during the pandemic.
The fastest pace of recovery can be detected in business services, energy, infrastructure, transportation and automotive. Nonetheless, the survey shows that 15 per cent of Swedish companies in the US have yet to enter the recovery phase with sectors such as materials and mining and consumer products and services lagging far behind.
This report outlines the findings based on three focus areas: current state of recovery among Swedish companies; recovery and growth strategies and finally; future commitment to the US market including respondents’ views on business impacts of the presidential election.
Download the report for a full presentation of the US survey results.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
This survey of Swedish companies operating in the US was conducted by Team Sweden, a joint initiative between Business Sweden USA, the Embassy of Sweden and the Swedish American Chambers of Commerce. The respondents represented Swedish companies with operations in all regions of the US (55 per cent with nationwide presence) where 16 per cent were large-sized companies (500 global employees or more), 36 per cent medium-sized companies (50-499 employees) and 48 per cent small-sized companies (0-49 employees).