U.S. economists confident about growth going forward: survey

Economists in the U.S. are increasingly optimistic about growth in the year ahead, with hiring expected to pick up in coming months, according to the results of a quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economists.

The study shows that half of the economists polled now expect real gross domestic product – the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S. – to grow between 2% and 4% in 2013, up from 36% of respondents who felt the same way three months earlier.

About half expect sluggish or negative performance, down from 65% in October.

The latest survey was conducted between Dec. 20 and Jan. 8 and asked 65 economists and others who use economics in the workplace about conditions at their firms or industries. It found that 34% of firms now expect to expand their payrolls in the next six months, the highest percentage since April of last year. Meanwhile, 2% said they expect their companies to cut payrolls through layoffs, while 14% see payrolls trimmed through attrition.

A quarter of respondents also said employment grew at their firms in the fourth quarter, which is comparable to the levels seen in the first half of 2012. The same percentage also reported a rise in wages at their firms in the final three months of the year, up 10 percentage points from the last survey.

Overall sales growth was stable in the fourth quarter, with results mixed across industries. For instance, growth slowed in the services, finance, insurance and real estate sectors, but it rose in the transportation, utilities and information and communications sectors.

The survey also found that 27% of respondents postponed at least some hiring and capital spending during the quarter as a result of the uncertainty, while 72% said the issue didn’t affect hiring.

Despite stable sales growth, survey respondents noted that profit margins deteriorated in the fourth quarter, with 25 per cent saying their margins increased, down from 27% in October. On the other side, 18% reported declining profit margins, compared with 15% a year ago. Over the next three months, slightly more than a third said they expect primary non-labor costs to rise. That’s down from 43% in the previous survey.

Expectations for capital spending over the next year weakened from the last survey. Only 40% expect their firms to grow capital spending, down from 52%.