‘What do businesses hate?': Mass. employers navigating uncertainty and fear

Yahoo

25-06-2025

SPRINGFIELD — Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the group representing 3,400 businesses across the state, said surveys of its members show the business community is unsure of the state's economy these days.
April results showed confidence among Massachusetts employers at its lowest level since the pandemic closed down much of the commonwealth's economy in March 2020, according to AIM, which surveys its members monthly and distills the results into a business confidence index. May's results showed confidence rebounding a bit. June's survey is not out yet.
'What do businesses hate? Uncertainty, rules changing,' said Brooke Thomson, AIM's president, during a visit this week with editors and reporters at The Republican.
She detailed how trade, tariffs and immigration enforcement are all making life less predictable for AIM's members across the state. Add perennial concerns like the high cost of housing and living in Massachusetts, and Thomson said the trade association is a busy advocate on Beacon Hill.
AIM also finds itself much more involved in federal-level matters, Thomson said.
What follows is excerpts from that conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Do you find yourself working on both bills, but also matters that can be taken up by the executive branch?
A: Where we are now in 2025, you could say that AIM is involved in federal, state and local matters. So where we are in 2025, much more involvement in federal issues than ... — I came to AIM in 2019 — more than we've ever been involved in federal issues in my time. We've always been that voice for business at the state level. And then we're very involved in local issues in a variety of different ways right now. ... Probably the largest one would be housing because of the dramatic impact that housing has and the lack of available housing on workforce and the economy as a whole.
Q. What is the current situation with tariffs?
A. I talked about them (Wednesday) morning with the minister of the economy for Quebec and with the Canadian premiers and the New England governors on Monday. I would like to say that we were in a spot six months into 2025 where we had resolution. But unfortunately, and that is the challenging part here, I think what continues to frustrate me on behalf of the members of the business community is that I still think there's a lot of misinformation out there around tariffs. There's, you know, this notion that every time there's sort of a new negotiation or a new settling of a deal or a new negotiation around a percentage that somehow we've struck a deal and now it's resolved. And the real situation is that it continues to keep this uncertainty, and this really tense and quite frankly fragmented trade relationship. ... Our conversations with our Canadian counterparts, they have had to completely adjust the way in which they do business to understand that they can't rely on their dependence on the United States. And that really is primarily New England and Massachusetts, who are their number one trading partners. So, they are doing wisely what they should do, which is saying, we have to diversify, we have to go find other alternatives because we don't know where the story ends or how it ends.
Q: Are you hearing from members about immigration issues, particularly with their workforce?
A: Again, it is the uncertainty around what we're seeing and the fear, certainly you've seen a dramatic uptick and the impact on the workforce. At AIM, .. we provide HR support to our members. We've tried to be very proactive, again, around education, telling folks, you know, have your I-9s ready. Here's how to be prepared. If somebody comes to your place of work. Here are the numbers you call, here's what you do. But, you know, we've heard from members that folks just aren't showing up to work. People are afraid … You have this temporary status for Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants that's going to be now coming into question in August and September. What does that mean, particularly in Massachusetts, where we are so heavily dependent on an immigrant workforce at all levels. Whether you're having a conversation about our high tech, you know, you're talking about doctorates and Ph.D.s at MIT and Harvard, or you're talking about people that are working in our hospitals and food service, in our schools, in our manufacturing facilities.
Q: Do you get a sense from employers that they're all operating above board when it comes to immigrant workers?
A: Are there bad actors? I think there's bad actors. I think I'm more aware of the members of AIM who have kind of gone above and beyond to try to follow the rules. We've had folks come in, how do I do whatever I need to do to try to get temporary work status for (employees)? How do I bring in resources, whether it's Haitian translators or something else. And now they're saying, I've made this investment, what do I do if come Aug. 3, Aug. 5 and 20 people are pulled off the floor.
Q: What are you looking at, at a state level?
A: Keeping the economy strong while trying to keep a watchful eye on maintaining costs. And that's everything. The hard thing is that they're all things at the same time. What we're trying to say is let's continue the momentum that we saw really take off last session. You saw great work for the Economic Development Bill that said, okay, we need to invest in key sectors. We need to make sure that we're going to, you know, put some bonding behind, clean tech behind, again, you know, biotech, things like that. Housing bond bill. We have to build more housing because we have to make sure that we have market rate housing. And that's again, what AIM would say over and over and over again, market rate housing.
Q. You mentioned in an interview in January that we should attract new industry to the state. Obviously, you just got done saying a lot of business decisions are on ice right now. But are there particular industries that may end up in Western Mass.?
A. So the two that we and I know the state are actively working on ... are climate tech, green tech. What's going on with a lot of the (old mill space) ... and then what we keep talking about ... taking a lot of the innovation economy that is continuing to happen, whether it's biotech, whether it's AI whatever it is ... and how are we utilizing, how they put, whether it's manufacturing, warehousing, whatever else is central to their business out in the western part of the state. ... So that when ... the R and D folks want to go see manufacturing, the R and D folks want to go to the call center, they're just going down the pike. They're not getting on a plane. That is really where I think our opportunity lies that we're not fully manifesting yet and I would like to see us really pursue here in Massachusetts.
Q. Is there something that you think state leaders can do in the short term to better compete with the Tennessees and Texases of the world?
A. One hundred percent. Taking a look on two fronts as far as zoning and siting of just general location of property. ... If it's a warehouse, if it's a call center, whatever it is (making it) easier and more efficient with the municipality. And then same thing with respect to making sure we have sufficient electricity, working with the, whether it's a municipal light plant or working with the utilities, to make sure (of) that. Because that seems to be oftentimes one of the number one challenges is particularly with manufacturing in some of these climate tech, green tech sectors that they're usually high intensity use of energy. ... Everyone's well intentioned, but how do we get better about having the state and those folks work together to make it more efficient and come together quicker?
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