Survey: Only 23 percent of U.S. companies plan to grow staff

Here's a sobering attitude check: the European debt crisis, coupled with fears that the U.S. economy is going to go off the so-called fiscal cliff in 2013, have put U.S. companies in a particularly grumpy mood.

Sixty-two percent of businesses don't plan on making any hires in the next six months—a significant uptick from the 48 percent who said the same thing back in April, according to the National Association for Business Economics. Only 23 percent of of those businesses polled in June said they planned to add staff in the second half of 2012.

In other words: the worsening we've been seeing with monthly unemployment numbers will continue. And the political fisticuffs between President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney will only get fiercer. Read more >>