Together with the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM), which is housed at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Chubb has published a summary of findings from the Middle Market Indicator (MMI) report. The latest poll was conducted in the second quarter of 2019, and explores macro trends – both current and emerging – plus business risks within the middle market. The summary measures past and predicted revenue growth, employment growth, economic confidence levels and business investment.

Many executives polled continue to express a conservative, optimistic outlook, with respondents reporting strong confidence in their local (89 percent; up from 88 percent in Q1) and national U.S. (82 percent; up from 80 percent in Q1) economies, with less confidence (69 percent; down slightly from 70 percent in Q1) and greater uncertainty about global conditions.

"The Middle Market Indicator measures the pulse of this important business segment across industries, signaling macro trends, gauging the perception of risk, and highlighting specific challenges evident within each industry," said Paul Lewis, North America Industry Practice Leader for Commercial Insurance at Chubb. "With these insights, Chubb can better-serve middle market enterprises on the types of risk they face and how to best guard against them."

Fifty percent of survey respondents believe risk for their company will increase over the coming year (up 1 percent from Q1), while 49 percent believe risk within their industry will trend higher over the same time period (up from 42 percent in Q1). Top concerns among executives polled include: cybersecurity (47 percent; up from 46 percent in Q1); legal, regulatory or compliance risk (41 percent; up from 35 percent in Q1); state of the economy at it relates to growth (40 percent; up from 32 percent in Q1); and competitive risks – whether domestic or new/disruptive competitors (39 percent; up from 35 percent in Q1).

"The middle market is vast, comprised of businesses across all industry segments and geographies, and represents 33 percent of private sector gross domestic product within the U.S.," said Thomas A. Stewart, Executive Director of NCMM. "With more than $10 trillion in annual revenue, and representing one third of jobs within the U.S., the middle market is an important economic engine. By better-understanding the economic landscape along with emerging opportunities and risks, this segment can achieve new levels of performance, efficiency and optimization."

Created and managed by the NCMM, the MMI surveys 1,000 C-suite middle market company executives across all industries on key indicators of past and future performance in revenues, employment and allocation of cash, reporting on economic confidence – locally, nationally and globally; identifies key business challenge areas; and measures how these are changing over time. The quarterly survey is designed to accurately reflect the nearly 200,000 U.S. businesses with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion.

The MMI summary report and other resources – including tools for agents and insureds – can be found within Chubb's resource center.