Recovery report: Most small businesses don

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The survey found that 90 percent plan to cut businesws expenses and 23 percent expect they will lay off employees durinfg the nextsix months. Only 26 percent expectr sales to increase, half the percentage who expected sales gains ayear ago. Nearly half expecr profits will decrease in thenear term. “These findingsd support PNC’s forecast that the U.S. economy will continu e to suffer into the second half ofthe year,” said PNC Chie f Economist Stuart Hoffman. It will be 2010 before the economhgets “real traction from the various federal policy stimulud initiatives,” Hoffman said. If the recessionn continues over the next six 43 percentof U.S.
companiees probably will make across-the-board budget cuts. That’s accordingv to a new poll by the . The next most likelh step would be to reduce staff through while 40 percent of human resource executives said hiring freezes woul d be putinto place. Freezing employee wages was followed by cuts inemployee bonuses. Only 24 percent expect layoffs. Layoffz “are becoming more of a last optiohn that many business leaderswoulsd take,” said SHRM President and CEO Laurencde O’Neil. “This finding underscores the seriousness of the recession as many companiesd find they cannot survive without some degreeof layoffs.
” More than 70 percenr of the CEO of America’s largest companie s expect to reduce employmengt at their businesses over the next six months, accordin to a survey by the Business Roundtable. Two-thirds expecy a decline in sales andcapital spending. The wantsd help from the public, including small on developing a plan to ensurw that all Americans have accesssto broadband. The economic stimulus legislation directed the FCC to presentg the plan to Congressby Feb. 17, a year after the bill was signedinto law.
The FCC is solicitinvg comments on the best ways to ensure universaplbroadband access, strategies for making it evaluating the progress of broadbandf grant programs and how to use broadband to advance publiv policy goals. Comments may be filed electronicallyat www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs or at www.regulations.gov. The stimulus bill included $7.2 billion for grants and loans to increase broadbandc access in unserved andunderserved areas. The programs will be administeref by the andthe ’s rural developmen t program. The plans to spend $285 millioh for 17,600 fuel-efficient vehicles, including 2,500 hybri d sedans, by June 1.
Money for these purchases, as well as $15 millio for advanced technology vehicles suchas all-electri vehicles, will come from funds appropriated in the economic stimulus package. GSA will use existing contractswith , and for thesed orders. President Obama said these purchasesare “part of our commitmentt to the American auto industry” and he was GSA “moved swiftly to acceleratee this purchase.” The distributed $197 millionm in economic stimulus funds to state s and Indian reservations for use in cleaning up underground storage tank petroleum leaks.
Theser leaks could seep into soil and contaminatwground water, which is a majod source of drinking EPA estimates about 1,600 sites will be cleanedf up as a result of the “EPA is putting people to work by servin our core mission of protecting huma n health and the environment,” said Administrator Lisa