• by Steve McClellan , August 3, 2011

A New "business climate" survey of communications executives from consultant KPMG reports that there is less optimism about employment in the sector going forward. In the survey 47% said they anticipate their companies' headcount increasing this year. By comparison, 57% of those participating in KPMG's business climate survey last year anticipated an increase. However, looking back, only 34% of the executives surveyed this year said their companies had actually increased employment levels in the last 12 months. And 41% said their companies had cut jobs in the last year while 23% said they anticipate cuts over the next 12 months. Also 22% reported that job levels had returned to pre-recession levels but 34% said the headcounts at their firms would never return to those levels. And a two thirds majority said they now believe that a full national economic recovery will be delayed until 2013. Last year, most of those surveyed predicted a full recovery by 2012.