Just about one in three firms increased their payrolls in the second quarter and 39% of respondents said they expect to hire in the next six months, according to the latest National Association for Business Economics survey, released Monday.
The 39% figure is the highest level of hiring intentions since January 2008, NABE said. A year ago, only 6% of firms saw gains in employment. The number of companies cutting jobs dropped to 14% from 36% a year ago.
While expectations for economic growth in 2010 were down slightly from last quarter, NABE said, they remained positive in the second quarter, with 20% of survey respondents saying they believe real gross domestic product will expand more than 3% compared with 24% of in April. Two-thirds of respondents believe the economy will expand by more than 2.0% in 2010.
