Hartford — At Kaman Specialty Bearings & Engineered Products, Kristofer Kolstad has found it "virtually impossible" to relocate employees from other states, because of the cost of living in Connecticut.

He said one unit of 500 employees has 40 positions in engineering, procurement and machining that have been open for months.

At The Walker Group, Jessica Rich said it's gotten harder to find talent in the last several years, but a "huge benefit" of Connecticut is proximity to customers.

At the Connecticut Restaurant Association, Scott Dolch has found it "scary" to sometimes walk out of meetings with legislators who "act like they know your job better than you."

As part of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association's annual Connecticut Economy conference, these three spoke on a panel about the results of CBIA's 18th annual Survey of Connecticut Businesses, released Friday.

CBIA emailed the survey to 5,300 executives in the state in June through July and received 356 responses, with executives in manufacturing, professional services and construction representing 63 percent of respondents.

Forty-three percent of those surveyed reported sales growth, the highest in five years, but that figure was lower for small businesses.

The survey results show a drop in optimism from last year, with just 11 percent expecting the Connecticut economy to grow next year, compared to 73 percent who foresee national growth. Last year, 85 percent expected the U.S. economy to grow.

Only 3 percent of respondents said they approve of the state legislature's handling of the economy and job creation, while 94 percent feel the legislature focuses too heavily on adding workplace mandates compared to job creation.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents said the paid family medical leave legislation passed will have a negative impact on their business, while 53 percent said the minimum wage hike will have a negative impact.

CBIA advocated against both bills this past legislative session, with Executive Director Joe Brennan saying opposition was to the way the bills came out, not the issues in general.

These measures "contribute to the personal financial security of families across Connecticut," Max Reiss, spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, said in an email statement. He added, "The governor was proud to sign them into law. The governor is thrilled to see economic growth on the rise in Connecticut and wants to pursue policies that support that growth. That is why the governor has spent so much time connecting with top executives from major Connecticut companies, looking for their input and guidance."

Along with the release of the survey results, the conference included a session on navigating President Donald Trump's trade wars, and on recruiting and retaining millennial workers, now between ages 23 and 38.

Quinnipiac University economics professor Christopher Ball was upfront that he is "completely against all of these tariffs." He said tariffs can lead to a short-term GDP boost, but in the long run, they raise the price of goods and services in the U.S. economy.

He added that for the first six months of 2019, imports from China have dropped 12 percent while U.S. exports have dropped 19 percent, meaning the trade deficit has gotten worse.

The effects of the tariffs on Connecticut, Ball said, are increased costs of production, extra time and money spent developing new global supply chains, and a boost for some specific businesses that compete with foreign goods.

The top countries to which Connecticut exports are France, Germany and Canada. China, which Ball does not expect to cave in the trade war, is sixth.

As for millennials, one trend that Charles Botts II of Career Team sees is that job candidates are now "ghosting" employers, such as cutting off contact without notice or not showing up to an interview, whereas it's historically been the other way around.

"Embrace ghosting, because if individuals choose to remove themselves from your recruitment, your hiring cycle, they did you a favor, because it's likely they wouldn't have been a very good fit," he said.

While millennials are sometimes pilloried for needing constant feedback, Christina Semenza said constant feedback has always been embraced at Enterprise Holdings Inc., where she is group talent acquisition manager.

Semenza said stories about a millennial showing up to a job interview with a friend or having a parent call out sick for them are the exception, not the rule. Botts said stories like this happen in every generation, but the difference now is amplification in the information age.

A takeaway of moderator Linda Olbrys of CareerCurve was that millennials just want to be treated with respect and are therefore a bellwether in an organization for how everyone wants to be treated.

e.moser@theday.com