The "economic climate" just means the situation that the economy is in. It includes:

• How many people have jobs
• How much money businesses are making
• How well the stock market is doing

Although the phrase "economic climate" isn't negative, people mostly use it when the economy is bad. When people want to carefully talk about a bad economy, they often say things like:

The economic climate these days is tough.

In this economic climate, we can't afford to spend any additional money on staffing.