By Gene Galin
Pittsboro, NC – A new “Local Business Conditions” survey presented this month by Chatham County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rebecca Dickenson paints a picture that will feel familiar to many employers: anxiety about today’s economy and rising costs, paired with a striking belief that the next year will be better. Based on 94 responses collected from Jan. 12 through Feb. 2, the survey suggests many firms are operating with tight margins and persistent hiring headaches—yet a majority still expect revenue gains and improved financial conditions over the next 12 months. The combination, Dickenson told attendees, is exactly why the Chamber wants to repeat the snapshot annually: to track what’s changing, identify what’s not, and translate the “stories underneath” into practical conversations about workforce, housing, infrastructure, and the local rules that shape day-to-day business decisions.
A Snapshot of Chatham’s Employers—Mostly Small, With Big Players in the Room
Dickenson opened her Feb. 11 presentation by underscoring that the survey is a first-year baseline, not a definitive census. Ninety-four respondents completed the questionnaire—roughly half of those in the room, she said—capturing a moment in time during a three-week window from mid-January to early February.
The respondents skewed small, with the largest share reporting one to three full-time local employees, and most reporting 10 employees or fewer. But Dickenson emphasized that the sample wasn’t limited to mom-and-pop operations: larger employers were represented as well, including firms with 100–500 employees and those with 500-plus employees.
Geographically, the survey was tightly local. Dickenson said 95% of respondents were located in Chatham County or had a Chatham County location, with only five responses coming from outside the region without a local footprint. “So this gives us good data for our local region here,” she told the audience.
Industry-wise, respondents were grouped into sectors aligned with Census-style categories to keep future year-over-year comparisons consistent. Professional and financial services were prominent, along with health care and real estate. Smaller numbers came from transportation, information technology, and government/public sector.
That composition matters. Chatham County is not a single-industry economy. It is an increasingly diverse blend of legacy rural businesses, fast-growing service firms, and employers orbiting the region’s larger economic engines. Population growth has been a defining trend: one national data aggregator estimates Chatham County’s population grew 25.7% from 2014 to 2024. (USAFacts) That kind of growth expands customer bases—but it also strains housing supply, road networks, childcare capacity, and the very labor pipeline businesses rely on.
“Not a Great Performance”: The Economy Feels Negative—Even as Balance Sheets Look Steady
The survey’s most attention-grabbing result may be its internal tension.
Asked how the current state of the economy is affecting their organization, 27 respondents said “very negatively,” and 21 said “neutral,” Dickenson reported. Only a small number selected “very positive.” In her words, when you combine neutral-to-negative responses, “it’s not a great performance in this current snapshot.”
But two questions later, the mood shifted.
When asked to describe their current financial condition, a large share of respondents said they were “steady and stable” or “confident,” with another group saying they were “strong and growing” and “optimistic.” Dickenson described the pessimistic slice as “very small,” roughly 3%.
That contradiction—bad vibes about the broader economy but relative confidence in one’s own shop—shows up frequently in business surveys nationwide. Local owners can feel the drag of interest rates, supply-chain volatility, and consumer caution while still managing their own costs, backlog, and customer loyalty well enough to stay stable. In Chatham’s case, it may also reflect the reality of a fast-growing county: new residents and new development can keep demand flowing, even when operating expenses rise and employers worry about what’s coming next.
A Surprisingly Optimistic 12-Month Outlook: “Better or Stronger” for Most
If the “current economy” question captured stress, the “next 12 months” questions captured hope.
Dickenson reported that 58% of respondents expect their organization’s financial condition to become “better or stronger” over the next year, while 32% expect it to remain “steady or about the same.” Revenue expectations leaned positive too: 14% said revenue would increase significantly, and 55% predicted it would increase somewhat—meaning a strong majority anticipated some level of revenue growth.
Dickenson cautioned that rising revenue does not always mean rising prosperity. Some firms may project higher top-line numbers simply because “everything’s more expensive,” she noted—an inflation dynamic that can lift sales figures while compressing margins.
Still, the overall sentiment was notable: despite reporting negative economic effects in the present, most respondents were betting on improvement ahead.
Local context may help explain that bet. Economic development headlines across central North Carolina have been dominated by large-scale manufacturing and supply-chain investments, including Toyota’s battery plant in Liberty, North Carolina. Toyota announced in late 2025 that production had started at the facility—its first battery plant outside Japan and a project the company says represents nearly $14 billion in investment and up to 5,100 jobs. While Liberty is in Randolph County, major projects of that scale reshape labor markets and supplier networks across county lines, influencing Chatham employers who compete for talent and services or hope to become vendors.
Costs Are Still Rising—And Many Businesses Are Trying Not to Pass Them On
One of the survey’s clearest messages was about prices.
Asked what they expect to pay for goods and services over the next 12 months, most respondents projected increases “somewhat or significantly,” Dickenson said. Only one respondent expected costs to decrease, prompting her to joke about a “really good negotiator.”
The more difficult question for many business owners is what to do next: raise prices or absorb costs.
On whether they expect to increase the prices they charge customers, the survey indicated many are trying to hold the line—“we’re going to kind of crunch that cost,” Dickenson said—because local businesses often operate with “smaller and smaller” margins. Some respondents did indicate they would raise prices, but Dickenson’s comments reflected what retailers, restaurants, service providers, and contractors frequently face: customers are sensitive to price hikes, and small firms can lose market share quickly when a larger competitor can keep prices lower longer.
That pressure is not unique to Chatham. National small-business surveys have repeatedly highlighted cost inflation and the difficulty of balancing compensation and pricing. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), for example, has emphasized that many owners remain constrained by labor availability even when sales improve. When workers are scarce, wages rise; when costs rise, owners face a choice between price increases and thinner profits.
Workforce Plans: Most Expect Stability—But a Third Want to Add Workers
On headcount, the survey leaned toward stability, with a meaningful appetite for growth.
Dickenson reported that 64% of respondents expect their total workforce to stay roughly the same, only 2% expect to reduce, and 34% expect to add workers. That “adding workers” share surprised her, particularly given earlier responses describing the economy as a negative factor.
The result suggests an important nuance: a business can feel pressured and still hire. In fact, pressure can create hiring needs—especially if companies are trying to expand services, shorten turnaround times, or stabilize operations in a tight labor environment.
And that tight labor environment showed up strongly in another question: hiring challenges.
Hiring Is Still One of the Biggest Pain Points—“Limited Pool of Talent” Confirmed
Dickenson said the survey confirmed what she hears anecdotally “time after time”: it’s hard to find people.
Respondents identified hiring as one of their biggest current challenges. The survey results she described included categories such as “hiring is one of the biggest challenges” and “feels harder lately,” along with those reporting hiring challenges that have not yet hurt operations. But the overarching takeaway, Dickenson said, was clear: “There’s a limited pool of talent that’s coming in really strong.”
She pointed to local assets—schools and the community college system—and described the need to keep building a funnel from education and training into local jobs. But she also highlighted barriers that can’t be solved by job postings alone: housing, transportation, and childcare.
While the survey showed “limited housing supply and cost of housing” as a lower-ranked hiring obstacle than the talent pool itself, it remained part of the story. Housing availability and affordability shape whether workers can move to a county, stay in a county, and build a life close enough to sustain a job—especially in service sectors with narrower wage bands.
Local housing data can be noisy depending on source, but public market trackers have recently shown significant price levels in the county. Redfin’s county-level page, for example, estimated a median sale price around $629,000 in January 2026 (down year-over-year in that dataset), underscoring that even “cooling” prices can remain high in absolute terms.
Transportation also surfaced as a constraint, as did childcare availability—another factor that has become increasingly central to labor-force participation, particularly for working parents. Dickenson’s interpretation was blunt: “This slide here tells me we need to be thinking about workforce—education training. What do we need to do to kind of bring in and make sure we have the workers here that we want to have.”
The hiring story aligns with broader state and national reporting. NFIB’s North Carolina-focused updates have repeatedly pointed to worker shortages and persistent job openings owners can’t fill. In one state jobs report, NFIB said 32% of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill, a figure that had held steady month to month. The point is not that Chatham’s 94 responses match NFIB’s methodology—but that the local narrative fits inside a wider labor-market pattern.
AI Adoption: Many Are Dabbling—And the Chamber Wants to Know How
One of the most forward-looking questions asked whether organizations have incorporated artificial intelligence tools into normal operations.
Dickenson reported that “yes, but not much” and “yes, substantially” made up “quite the majority,” while a smaller group said they have not incorporated AI into normal operations. She speculated that non-adoption might be industry-specific and said she wants to explore that over time.
Her message to the room was pragmatic, not evangelistic: if businesses are using AI, she wants them talking about it; if they aren’t, she wants to know why. AI has become a frequent workshop and keynote topic, she noted, and the question now is how to “leverage this” locally.
For small businesses, AI adoption can range from basic tools—automating customer emails, scheduling, quick marketing drafts, invoice categorization—to advanced uses such as predictive maintenance, inventory optimization, and customer service chat systems. But adoption is not frictionless. Owners worry about data privacy, accuracy, staff training, and whether AI will actually save time in a lean operation.
The survey did not, at least in the presentation excerpt, detail which tools respondents used. But Dickenson’s interest in drilling down suggests a likely direction for next year’s survey: less “are you using AI?” and more “for what, with what outcomes, and with what risks?”
Is Local Government Pro-Business? A Majority Say Yes—But Uncertainty and Frustration Persist
Dickenson framed another question carefully: “Would you say local government here is fill in the blank?” As a Chamber, she said, the goal is “stronger citizens,” and measuring perception is part of moving the needle.
The survey results she shared were mixed but leaned positive:
- 27% said local government is strongly pro-business
- 39% said somewhat pro-business
- 14% said anti-business
- 2% said very anti-business
- 18% said not sure
Dickenson’s takeaway was that the data is useful precisely because it can be tracked: publish the survey year over year and see whether perceptions move. The “not sure” segment, in particular, is a signal: some businesses may not know how decisions are made, where to find information, or how to engage effectively.
This section of the presentation also foreshadowed the survey’s most pointed open-ended responses—where business owners wrote in their views on regulation, economic development, and the consistency of municipal processes.
The Open-Ended Responses: Economic Conditions, Local Rules, and Competition
Numbers can show trendlines; free-text answers show tone.
When respondents were asked the most significant challenge to future growth, Dickenson said the Chamber grouped 87 responses by recurring keywords.
Broad economic conditions topped the list, with 23 people referencing macro uncertainty. Dickenson shared examples: if consumers “don’t feel safe enough to spend on non-essential goods,” some businesses worry they will be “sunk.” Another recurring theme was compressed margins—the gap between what a business pays and what it can realistically charge.
Next came local government conditions and local economic development, with 13 people raising issues such as the need for consistent municipal regulation—“set a policy and adhere to it,” as one response put it. Other comments touched on the speed of “parks buildout,” suggesting that amenities and infrastructure shape economic vitality in ways business owners notice. Dickenson emphasized these were anecdotal, noting that opinions can sharply diverge in the same room.
That divergence appeared again in a bluntly phrased response she cited: “Local government is pro big business and big developers and build to the small local businesses.” Dickenson did not treat it as a definitive finding; she treated it as a signal that education and communication are needed to bridge perceptions and realities.
Workforce challenges also appeared in the open-ended responses: executive retirement, hiring and retaining qualified talent, and the cost of hiring young talent. Finally, respondents pointed to competition—particularly larger out-of-state businesses with bigger budgets entering the market.
The competition theme resonates in growth counties. As population rises, the market becomes more attractive to regional and national brands. Consumers may welcome more choices and lower prices; local independents may face new pressure on pricing, marketing, and staffing.
What Businesses Say They Need: Marketing Help, Connections, Capital, Employees
When respondents were asked what resources could help them be more successful in the next 12 months, Dickenson said the top answers were:
- Help with marketing and advertising
- Help networking and connecting
- Accessing capital
- Help finding employees
The pattern is telling. Businesses did not just ask for policy changes; they asked for capacity—the tools and relationships that help a firm grow.
Marketing and visibility appear especially important in a county where geography spreads customers across small towns and rural corridors. A business can be excellent and still struggle if new residents don’t know it exists, or if online search results and social media channels are dominated by bigger brands.
Networking, too, often functions as a growth engine in smaller markets. It connects suppliers to buyers, employers to training programs, and new entrepreneurs to mentors. Chambers of commerce often see this as their bread-and-butter work—making introductions and building ecosystems.
Access to capital and help hiring employees are more structural. They can involve banks, credit unions, state programs, community development financial institutions, workforce boards, and community colleges. The survey suggests many businesses want help navigating that landscape.
“Marketing All of Pittsboro” vs. “More Support Downtown”: A County Debating Its Own Center of Gravity
Perhaps the most revealing moment in Dickenson’s presentation came from a pair of quotes she displayed side by side—two responses pulling in opposite directions:
One called for “marketing to promote all of Pittsboro, not just downtown.” Another asked for “more support for downtown,” including more events.
Dickenson used the contrast to make a point: this is what local leaders are dealing with—a community that doesn’t always agree on where resources should flow, what “support” looks like, or how to balance a historic downtown with broader town limits and unincorporated areas.
Those tensions are not necessarily a problem; they are a reality to manage. A county can invest in downtown placemaking while also promoting businesses in surrounding corridors. But doing both well takes strategy, staff time, and money—exactly the constraints small businesses feel when they’re “crunching” costs and struggling to hire.
The survey also captured specific process frustrations that have surfaced in local development conversations for years, such as calls to “streamline” and “reduce the design review process.” Business owners who plan expansions, signage, renovations, or new construction can experience regulatory steps as either necessary safeguards or costly delays, depending on perspective and outcome.
Why the Chamber Wants to Repeat the Survey: Building a Local Time Series
Dickenson repeatedly returned to the survey’s purpose: start a baseline, then build a track record.
“It is one year. It is a snapshot,” she said. “Our hope is that next year we’re comparing it to the next year to the next year and then it helps sort of drive some of the conversations forward.”
In other words, the Chamber is attempting something closer to local economic intelligence than a one-off questionnaire. A repeated survey can show whether hiring constraints ease, whether cost pressures moderate, whether optimism fades or strengthens, and whether perceptions of local government shift.
It also creates accountability. If “marketing and connections” show up as needs year after year, it becomes harder for institutions—public and private—to ignore. If complaints about inconsistency in regulation persist, it becomes a prompt for process audits and clearer communication. If AI adoption grows, it raises questions about training, cybersecurity, and competitiveness.
Dickenson’s own leadership role positions the Chamber to use that data as a convening tool. The Chamber has highlighted her background in business development and community engagement, emphasizing a focus on strengthening the county’s business ecosystem. The survey is one mechanism to do that: quantify sentiment, surface friction points, and create an agenda that is grounded in what employers say they’re experiencing.
What This Means for Chatham’s Next Chapter
The survey suggests Chatham County’s business community is navigating three realities at once:
- A high-cost environment that is pushing up input prices and threatening margins.
- A tight labor market that makes it difficult to hire and retain workers, with housing, childcare, and transportation as complicating factors.
- A growth trajectory—in population, development, and regional economic investment—that makes many businesses believe they can expand revenue and strengthen finances in the year ahead.
Those realities can coexist, but they create policy and planning tradeoffs.
If employers can’t find workers, economic growth can become self-limiting. If housing prices and limited supply make it difficult for workers to live near jobs, commuting burdens rise and turnover increases. If childcare is scarce, parents reduce hours or leave the workforce. If infrastructure—roads, parking, parks, broadband—lags behind growth, businesses may lose customers or face higher operating costs. If regulatory processes feel unpredictable, entrepreneurs may delay investment or choose other locations.
At the same time, the optimism embedded in the survey is an asset worth protecting. Businesses that believe the next year will be better are more likely to invest, hire, and innovate. The challenge for Chatham’s civic institutions is to convert that optimism into outcomes—helping businesses expand while reducing the friction that makes expansion hard.
A County “Feeling It” Today, Planning Anyway for Tomorrow
Rebecca Dickenson’s presentation of the Chamber’s first Local Business Conditions survey offered a local version of a broader economic truth: confidence is complicated. Many Chatham employers say the economy is affecting them negatively and that costs are rising. Hiring remains difficult, and the pool of available talent feels limited. Yet most respondents still describe their own financial condition as stable or strong—and many expect the next 12 months to bring improved finances, higher revenue, and even workforce growth.
For residents, the takeaway is not simply that businesses are worried or hopeful. It is that the county’s economic future will be shaped by practical, solvable systems: workforce pipelines, housing and childcare capacity, infrastructure, access to capital, and clear, consistent local processes. For policymakers and civic leaders, the survey provides a starting benchmark—and a challenge to respond with measurable action before next year’s snapshot arrives.
Watch on YouTube – Rebecca Dickenson presents Local business conditions survey results – 2.11.26
Local Business Conditions Survey: Key Insights on Economic Impact and Outlook from Chatham County Respondents.
00:17 Survey reveals local business dynamics with 94 respondents in Chatham County.
- The survey engaged a diverse set of respondents, primarily small businesses, with 29% employing 1-3 people.
- 95% of responses came from businesses located in Chatham County, ensuring relevant local insights.
02:02 Current economic conditions show mixed sentiments in Chatham County organizations.
- 27 out of 94 respondents reported negatively affected by the economy, indicating concern among businesses.
- Despite negative feelings, 58% expect their financial condition to improve in the next year.
03:58 Businesses show mixed revenue expectations and price increase concerns for the coming year.
- 55% of participants are optimistic about revenue growth, with only 14% expecting significant increases.
- A predominant number of businesses anticipate rising costs, leading most to consider raising their prices.
05:58 Hiring challenges and workforce growth trends are impacting local businesses.
- 34% increase in workers indicates optimism in local business conditions despite hiring difficulties.
- 18% of businesses identify hiring as their biggest challenge, compounded by a limited talent pool and high housing costs.
07:48 Workforce challenges and AI integration impact local business conditions.
- Organizations face workforce shortages and limited childcare, raising concerns about attracting necessary talent.
- Survey results reveal mixed opinions on local government support for businesses, influencing future economic strategies.
09:52 Local businesses face challenges from economic conditions and government policies.
- 82 respondents highlighted economic uncertainties, with 23 citing broad conditions affecting consumer spending and profit margins.
- 13 respondents expressed concerns over local government regulation consistency and its impact on small businesses versus larger enterprises.
11:56 Survey reveals key challenges for local businesses’ future growth.
- Workforce issues, including talent retention and hiring costs, pose significant challenges for organizations.
- Local businesses seek improved marketing support, networking opportunities, and access to capital to thrive.
13:54 Local business conditions survey highlights key economic development needs.
- Focus on reducing design review process and fostering economic development through local supplier initiatives.
- Chatham Chamber aims to build on survey data annually to drive meaningful conversations and improvements.