Confidence among CEOs of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) jumped to 100.8 in the fourth quarter of 2024—a 15.7-point quarter-over-quarter increase and the highest score recorded since 2021’s second quarter. That’s the headline news from the latest CEO Confidence Index released by CEO coaching and peer advisory organization Vistage. This sharp increase, Vistage officials said, reflects growing optimism for future revenue and profits, with CEOs’ plans for investments and hiring now exceeding both pre-pandemic levels and decade-long averages.

Growing confidence is driven in part by the more than half (55%) of CEOs who believe the economy will improve over the next year, which is a substantial increase over responses in early 2024 and 2023. This optimism is largely fueled by the change in U.S. leadership, according to Vistage. Of those CEOs anticipating improvements, the majority cite the new administration as the reason for their positive outlook. “We ended 2024 with a significant boost to CEO confidence, an indicator of the long-awaited growth cycle forecasted to begin in 2025,” Joe Galvin, Vistage’s chief research officer, said in a statement. “Economic conditions are largely shaped by factors such as administration policies, trade regulations, inflation, and consumer confidence. More than half of CEOs expect the economy to improve in the coming year, with many optimistic about the new administration and the potential for pro-business policies, reduced regulations, lower inflation, and reduced borrowing costs to drive investment and fuel growth.”