The mood among chief executives of the world’s biggest companies has gotten worse, but the outlook for jobs may be improving, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Almost half of the almost 1,300 chief executives surveyed by PwC now think that the global economy will get worse in 2012, according to the report, issued on the eve of the World Economic Forum \(WEF\) 2012 in Davos, Switzerland.
Almost half of the almost 1,300 chief executives surveyed by PwC now think that the global economy will get worse in 2012, according to the report, issued on the eve of the World Economic Forum \(WEF\) 2012 in Davos, Switzerland.
Just 15 percent of them thought that the world’s economy would improve during 2012.
Gloom descended over the economy in 2011 as the euro zone debt crisis rocked stock markets, and the world faced a second global recession. Economists and analysts have been almost unanimously muted in their predictions for the year ahead.
Despite the negativity about the economic outlook, the outlook for employment, one of the key concerns facing the leaders gathering at Davos, was surprisingly upbeat.More than half of the CEOs surveyed expect to increase headcount in the next 12 months, with hiring much more likely in the entertainment and media sectors – which have been particularly badly hit by the downturn. CEOs in Asia, which has driven much of global growth for the past few years as the US and Europe have stalled, said they are most likely to add jobs.
