For Massachusetts businesses, it looks like another bumpy ride.

As the calendar flipped to 2026, the state’s employers entered the new year with the same lack of confidence they had expressed for most of 2025.

One concrete measure of that pessimistic sentiment, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts’ business confidence index, fell 1.7 points in December — the fourth lowest score of the year —marking the 10th consecutive month that the pulse of the economic climate has recorded a negative reading.

The last time the index indicated neutrality or confidence occurred in February 2025 with a rating of 50.4.

This scale reflects confidence — or lack of — in the state’s vitality. It’s overseen by a council of economists and business leaders well aware of Massachusetts market conditions.

Businesses’ concerns about rising costs, permitting red tape and the outflow of working people from Massachusetts to more affordable states were offset somewhat by positive signs in the economy, according to the survey of more than 140 employers.

“Consumer spending has remained relatively resilient, supported by steady job growth, rising real wages in some sectors, and strong balance sheets among higher-income households,” Sara Johnson, AIM Board of Economic Advisors chair, said in a statement accompanying the new index numbers.

“Corporate investment, particularly in technology and artificial intelligence, continues to provide pockets of momentum. These factors suggest an economy that is slowing but still expanding, avoiding the downturn many feared earlier.”

That sanguine view would seem to be at odds with the AIM findings.

The December index reading — 46.8 on a 100-point scale — noticeably trailed the 55.4 recorded at the end of 2024.

The confidence index hit a recent low of 41.5 last April.

AIM said its Massachusetts (39.6) and US indices (40.1) are both down more than 15 points from a year ago.

AIM President and CEO Brooke Thomson identified data security, rising health care and energy costs as ongoing business concerns.

“Add in the possibility that voters may face as many as 11 statewide ballot questions in the fall, and there are many potential issues that are likely to affect business confidence this year,” Thomson said.

Modest gains in science-based sector aside, the general aura of pessimism found in the AIM index is representative of a two-tiered economy, in which high-tech industries exert a disproportionate influence over how we judge the state’s overall business health.

Most of the state’s workforce — and the businesses that employ them — don’t benefit from corporate advances in emerging technologies.

They’re more Main Street — the businesses the AIM index primarily measures.

Sentinel and Enterprise

Editorial cartoon by Al Goodwyn (Creators Syndicate)