More than half of U.S. mid-sized companies are not planning to hire over the next 12 months or may lay people off, and fewer than a third of the firms expect strong economic growth, a survey said on Monday. The news adds to evidence the U.S. economy may not grow as robustly next year as it did last quarter, when gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 3.4 percent. Not all companies are gloomy about employment -- 47 percent expect to hire, according to the survey from CIT and the Economist Intelligence Unit. But 44 percent of mid-sized companies see their workforce size staying the same, and 9 percent forecast a decline.
See "Most U.S. Mid - Sized Companies Not Hiring: Survey", Reuters, The New York Times, July 29, 2007