Chief financial officers' outlook for the economy and their companies' health continues to improve but not enough to spur much hiring.
Full-time employment will increase a measly 0.7 percent over the next year, according to a quarterly survey of 1,102 CFOs by Duke University and CFO Magazine released this morning. Temporary employment will actually fall 0.2 percent, the survey showed.
Financial executives oversee businesses' books and are considered a good barometer of future economic activity. The gloomy hiring projection isn't good news for job seekers hoping to see demand improve.
"The rate of improvement is slow and should put only a small dent in the unemployment rate by year-end," said John Graham, a Duke professor and the survey's director, in a prepared statement.
CFOs do predict solid increases in spending on new technology and expansion. But tight borrowing conditions continue to constrain growth, the survey found.
Fewer than half of companies that cut pay, training and benefits expect to restore those perks to pre-recession levels during the next year. And nearly 60 percent of CFOs say it will be 2012 or later before employment at their firms returns to pre-recession levels.
Read the full results of the Duke/CFO survey online here.
