Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/01/2010 -- Major companies are planning to hire fewer workers over the next six months because of economic uncertainty. This report comes from the Business Roundtable; an association of major CEOs of companies whose combined annual revenue exceeds $6 trillion.

The Business Roundtable Survey included the responses of 125 CEOs. 66 percent of the CEOs said that they expected to grow in the next six months, but only 31 percent said that they planned to hire more employees. 49 percent of the respondents also said that they planned to buy more equipment. The business leaders also forecast that the economy would grow 1.9 percent in 2010 instead of the 2.7 percent growth rate in the previous survey.

The pessimism of major business leaders comes as bad news for the 8.4 million unemployed people, and this figure just includes people receiving jobless benefits from the government. But the business group also laid blame on the federal government’s economic policies saying that the proposed new regulations and taxes were creating uncertainty for them.

CEO A. Harrison Barnes of Hound says that although the big companies may not be hiring in big numbers for the foreseeable future, there are still lots of small and medium-sized businesses who need people. Barnes is upbeat about the jobs scenario because his company has been able to find over 87,000 jobs in just a week. The jobs are across all the states and in virtually every industry.