Majority of U.S. Businesses Not Going to Hire in Next Six Months

A survey from accounting firm Grant Thornton confirmed the majority of business owners and executives consider the country still in a recession, and have no plans to hire within the next six months, with 22 percent saying they're going to cut back on hiring.

Together, only 29 percent had any plans to hire over the next six months, showing the reality of what business executives know, that there is no recovery yet, and until there is, they're not going to incur the extra cost of hiring new employees.

Now that the replenishment of inventories is over, and little real economic growth happening, companies are in a wait-and-see mode until a turnaround comes.

Some watching the retail rebound in the U.S. have attempted to make it look like it's a sustainable event, but more than likely all that is is the spending of tax return money be consumers, and when the next quarter comes we should see that reality reflected in the quarterly reports.

The best metric for the economy, because of the untrustworthiness of what is coming out of official government channels, is unemployment and unemployment benefits.

Unemployment went up again last week, and there is no improvement in those already unemployed. So if there is an economic rebound, like so many are asserting, there would be hiring because of the obvious demand.

Since there is no real demand, there is no hiring, it's as simple as that, and this survey confirms it.

I would add that this is just for the next six months, as there's no way the companies know what will happen beyond that. The mood seems to be there will be no hiring until real demand is restored, and until that time job creation won't keep up with those who need a job.

For the recession, those surveyed said they expect it to go at least to 2011, and 24 percent said they think it'll extend out farther than even that.

With these executives being the ground troops, this is more reliable than any data that can be manipulated and interpreted to say what the government wants it to say.

According to the vast majority of the executives, the best way to create jobs is to cut corporate and personal income tax rates, which 66 percent saying that would be the best way to go forward.