Canadian Manufacters & Exporters, a lobby group which represents some 5,000 or so manufacturing companies in Canada, is doing periodic surveys of its membership. The last few have been pretty bleak. But its latest business conditions survey seems to indicate a bit of an uptick. From the release:
It's not a signal the recession is over yet, but more Canadian manufacturers and exporters are optimistic about business conditions over the next three months than they have been since the beginning of 2009, according to the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters' March Business Conditions Survey.[PDF]
“It's a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak outlook,” said CME President, Jayson Myers in response to the survey results. “I believe the real economic impacts are still to be felt, but it is encouraging news that the economic decline appears to be slowing.”
This month, 717 companies participated in the survey conducted during the first two weeks of March. Exactly 49 per cent of firms expect orders to decrease between March and June, down seven percentage points from February's figure of 56 per cent. And there's some good news for job seekers — 13 per cent of companies expect to increase employment over the next three months, up from 11 per cent in February. The number of firms who are planning lay-offs also shrunk over the past month, decreasing from 45 to 42 per cent.
Myers' says that the number one issue for manufacturers continues to be access to credit.