Survey says: Makati Business Club members to hire more, expand ops 

Expanded operations and hiring of more workers are in the minds of about two thirds of 93 executives the Makati Business Club surveyed from February 14 – 29, the MBC said Tuesday.   “At the firm level, 61.3 percent of the executives surveyed are planning to expand the size of their workforce. This was a substantial increase from last year when only 37.3 percent said they would be hiring more workers,” according to the MBC First Semester 2012 Executive Outlook Survey.   “But 2.2 percent of this year's respondents indicated their companies have plans to downsize their labor force,” the survey also said.   About 63.4 percent of respondent firms revealed that because of the improved economic horizon, they intend to invest more.   “The average amount of new investments for each business enterprise was found to be P1.7 billion. In last year's survey, only 56.7 percent were planning additional investments, with an average amount of P1.2 billion from each firm,” the MBC survey said.   The 93 survey respondents are 12.7 percent of MBC total membership of 734. — ELR, GMA News