More companies say they plan to increase hiring, survey finds
Teens at Hampton Bays jobs fair. Credit: Thomas A. Ferrara
The number of chief executives planning to ramp up hiring is at the highest level since mid-2007, according to a survey that suggests large U.S. companies are expecting stronger sales and are growing more confident about the economic recovery.
The Business Roundtable - an association of more than 150 chief executives whose companies have a combined workforce of 12 million employees and nearly $6 trillion in annual revenue - said Wednesday that a survey of its members shows 39 percent of chief executives expect to boost their payrolls in the second half of 2010.
That's the highest level since the second quarter of 2007 - the year the recession began - when 42 percent planned to hire.
Big businesses aren't the only ones planning to expand.
The heads of two Long Island small businesses said they expect to hire more staff, too.
Sharon Newman, chief executive of Action Envelope, a Lindenhurst printing company, expects sales to rise because of the company's launch of a more visible domain name - envelopes.com.
So the company, which has 38 employees, plans to beef up its management team by adding four positions: a director of e-commerce, a marketing manager, a product manager, and a product and package-design person, Newman said.
"These are much higher-level hires than we're used to," she said.
Ted Bier, president of T.M. Bier & Associates, an energy-conservation company that installs lighting, air-conditioning and heating systems, said the Glen Cove company expects to add six more to its staff of 100.
It is looking for two project engineers, two sales-application engineers to determine what buildings need to make them efficient and two specialized computer programmers.
"The green side of our business is extremely strong," Bier said Wednesday.
Not all local companies have big hiring plans right now.
One of Long Island's largest employers, Melville-based Arrow Electronics, which has 11,300 employees globally, including 550 on Long Island, will hire as its needs dictate, a spokesman said.
Beyond that, hiring will depend on whether the global economy improves, he said.
