Survey suggests CEOs will ramp up hiring in second half of 2011

Corporate executives bullish on the economy expect to ramp up hiring in the second half of the year, according to a survey conducted by the Business Roundtable.

The survey, released on Tuesday, found that 87 percent of the group’s CEOs expect higher sales over the next six months, and more than half plan to increase capital spending and U.S. hiring.

The survey showed slightly less confidence than three months ago, when 92 percent of those surveyed expected their sales to increase, but leaders of the group touted the survey as reflecting confidence the economy would move forward in the next six months.

“We continue to see an upward trend for the last six months of 2011,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chairman of the Business Roundtable and chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications.

{mosads}The survey was taken just before the release earlier this month of a jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that found the economy added only 54,000 jobs in May, not nearly enough to lower the unemployment rate.

The disappointing report triggered worries in Washington and has added urgency to talks between the White House and congressional Republicans on raising the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt level.

Seidenberg cast his group’s survey as an optimistic assessment of those talks, saying business leaders appear hopeful that positive structural changes will come about from the debt talks.

“The way BRT people look at it, it has raised expectations that there will be progress in this area,” he said.

Executives surveyed also expect the economy to grow in the second half of the year by 2.8 percent, though that is less than the 2.9 percent previously anticipated.

The positive assessment comes after a disappointing run of economic news that has led to a six-week drop in stock prices, leaving the Dow Jones Industrial below the 12,000-point marker.