2025 Survey of Connecticut Businesses

CBIA’s 2025 Survey of Connecticut Businesses—the 23rd annual edition, made possible this year through the generous support of CBIZ, Inc.—captures business sentiment during a challenging time, with companies focused on innovation and optimization amid growing national and global uncertainty.

A year after the expiration of federal pandemic relief funding, Connecticut faces new fiscal pressures and longstanding structural challenges.

Following several years of budget surpluses, tax decreases, controlled spending, addressing long- term liabilities, and providing much-needed predictability and stability that drove increased business confidence, the 2025 legislative session was framed by intense debates over revenues, taxes, and fiscal policy.

The session ultimately concluded with lawmakers weakening the state’s critical fiscal guardrails and raising business taxes to increase state spending by $2.6 billion over the next two years—leaving many business leaders uncertain about the state’s direction, as reflected in the findings of this year’s survey.

Connecticut’s fiscal and economic challenges are compounded by ongoing instability and unpredictability at the federal level.

This year’s survey—conducted in the weeks following the 2025 legislative session—gathered input from more than 2,800 executives across a wide range of industries.

Respondents emphasized ongoing workforce shortages, Connecticut’s high cost of living, the rising cost of doing business, and regulatory burdens as the most pressing growth obstacles.