New York, NY, Mar. 04--The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of large U.S. companies, said the latest quarterly survey of its members show they expect "steady improvement in economic conditions" and "modest job growth."
For the first time since the quarterly survey began in late 2002, the percentage of CEOs projecting that their companies will add jobs in the U.S. was larger than the percentage expecting to shrink their work forces. Among the 122 CEOs responding to the survey, conducted in the second half of February, 33% said they expected to add jobs in the U.S. in the next six months, up from 25% making that prediction in the December survey and just 12% in October. In the latest survey, 45% of the CEOs foresaw steady U.S. employment for their companies in the next six months and 22% expected a decline.
Henry McKinnell, chairman of the roundtable and chairman and CEO of Pfizer Inc., said that capital spending is strong and that "unprecedented" productivity gains should spur economic growth. But he cautioned that the survey results don't suggest that job growth will be as robust as it usually is during economic recoveries. "We're not quite that bullish at this point," Mr. McKinnell said.
The roundtable's CEO economic-outlook index rose to 94.3 in the latest survey from 89.6 in December and 67.7 in October.
