U.S. Companies to Increase Hiring in 2011

Companies in the United States are poised to increase payrolls next year as revenue picks up, a sign the labor market is improving, an annual survey of chief financial officers showed today.

The share of executives who said they plan to hire new workers in 2011 rose to 47 percent, compared with 28 percent who forecast they would add jobs this year, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey released today. Sixty-four percent said they expect revenue growth, up from 61 percent in last year’s survey.

Businesses in the U.S. need to add more jobs to bring down an unemployment rate that rose to 9.8 percent in November, the highest since April, and alleviate concerns among Federal Reserve policy makers that growth in the world’s largest economy will remain sluggish.

U.S. Companies to Increase Hiring in 2011, Survey of CFOs Shows - Bloomberg