The recession that wouldn't go away

Business leaders in the United States are becoming increasingly alarmed — again — about the state of the economy, according to the results of a survey released today by Grant Thornton LLP. The Business Optimism Index, a quarterly survey of U.S. business leaders, found that the percentage of respondents who think that the recession will last until 2011 or later has more than doubled over the past three months, to 49%. Just 43% of respondents to the February survey said that they expect the economy to improve in the next six months, down from 53% in November. The results lend credence to fears of a double-dip recession, according to Grant Thornton's analysis of the findings. Business leaders' confidence in their own businesses declined slightly, with 74% feeling optimistic about their own company's growth over the next six months, compared with 79% in November. Plans for staffing remained relatively flat, with 31% planning to increase staffing, compared with 30% in November and 18% planning to decrease staffing, unchanged from November. In February 2009, the index showed that 45% of business leaders planned to decrease staffing and just 9% planned to hire. The overall Business Optimism Index came in at 58.8, representing a slight drop from 60.4 in November, but up from 37.6 a year earlier. The index is calculated from survey results from more than 440 senior executives. The most recent survey was conducted between Feb. 5 and Feb. 17.