Karlene Meister

Businesses in the US are afraid to hire nowadays, not because of the debt crisis, but because there is such low demand.

In a recent survey, 53 economists were asked what is the main reason employers are not hiring as readily as they should. Sixty-five percent cited lack of demand as the number one reason, while 27 percent cited uncertainty about government policy. The remainder stated that hiring overseas was more attractive.

Overall, the economists were not optimistic about economic growth and forecast gloomy times ahead for the second half of the year. But despite this, they expect the economy to bounce back. They also predict the jobless rate to start declining again, though they forecast that by December 2012 the unemployment rate will be above 8 percent.

Economists hope that consumers will become more confident when conditions begin to improve.