The Conference Board, which measures the economic opinions of CEOs, finds that top executives don’t believe there will much improvement in the job market in the next six months. However, the overall economic confidence of CEOs is a bit brighter than last quarter.
The organization’s most recent measure of CEO confidence, which had declined to a historical low last quarter of 24 on a scale of 100, posted a gain in the first quarter of 2009 to 30. However, the association says the 100 business leaders surveyed still believe hiring will be scarce over the next six months.
“This improved outlook does not extend to the labor market,” says Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board consumer research center. “The majority of chief executives still expect employment levels to decline further in the coming months.”
Less than 3% of CEOs anticipate an increase in employment levels in their industries in the coming months, down from about 26% a year ago. The proportion of CEOs who anticipate a decrease in hiring surged to 86% from 28% a year ago.
CEOs list health care costs as a major obstacle to hiring new workers. Regulation and litigation costs were second on the list, closely followed by wage and salary costs. Other fringe benefits were of lesser concern when hiring new workers.
Additionally, few of the business leaders polled believed business conditions in their industries had improved compared to six months ago. 1% say conditions are better, the same as in the final quarter of 2008.
However, CEOs’ general outlook for the next half-year improved. 17% of CEOs expect overall economic conditions to improve in the next six months, up from approximately 11% last quarter. Additionally, more than 26% of CEOs anticipate an improvement in the months ahead for their individual industries, up from about 12% last quarter.
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