Almost everybody, that’s who.

The Fuqua School Of Business at Duke University has released the results of a new survey of business leaders and CFOs.  Two key paragraphs:

“… An unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act will be a reduction in full-time employment growth in the United States.  Companies plan to increase full-time employment by 1.4 percent in 2014, a rate of growth which is down from last quarter and unlikely to put a dent in the unemployment rate.  CFOs indicate that full-time employment growth would be stronger in the absence of the ACA.”

“I doubt the advocates of this legislation would have foretold the negative impact on employment,” said Campbell R. Harvey, a professor of finance at Fuqua and a founding director of the survey.  “The impact on the real economy is startling.  Nearly one-third of firms may either terminate employees or hire fewer people in the future as a direct result of ACA.”

The full release, in PDF form, is HERE.