the 2024 Business Health Index.
Find out which markets are most optimistic about the year ahead. Where does yours rank?
The Talent Trends Business Health Index shows the views of human capital and C-suite leaders in 21 markets based on four factors: reported growth in the last year, reported hiring in the last year, leaders’ views on the current political environment, and whether they expect their business to grow significantly in the next year.
Since 2016, Randstad Enterprise's Talent Trends research has collected more than 7,000 responses on these factors. This feedback is normalized and used to determine the business health outlook both globally and locally, providing a basis for comparison. A score of 100 is the baseline global average set in 2016. An indexed value of 80 or lower indicates the market is less optimistic, whereas a score of 120 or higher suggests the market is more optimistic about the year ahead.
The sentiments represented in our 2024 Business Health Index were measured in Q4 2023, and high market volatility may have impacted expectations since then. Based on the existing data, the 2024 index suggests tempered optimism, with most markets scoring above the baseline of 100.
While only one market scored over 150 points last year, four markets display heightened optimism for 2024. Asia-Pacific markets including Japan, Singapore and Australia, have all increased scores by more than 20 points year-over-year and fall into this category. Hungary, a market that is new to this year’s survey, ranks second with a score of 155.
Meanwhile, Poland — the market that topped the 2023 Business Health Index — sees a 55-point drop this year, indicating declining optimism here. Additional markets with significant drops include the Nordics, Brazil and Switzerland. Sentiments in the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Mexico remain over the baseline of 100, while China, India, France and Italy remain below.