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.

“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% of firms expect orders to decrease between March and June, down seven percentage points from February’s figure of 56%.

The survey also contains some good news for job seekers — 13% of companies expect to increase employment over the next three months, up from 11% in February. The number of firms who are planning lay-offs also shrunk over the past month, decreasing from 45 to 42%.

Despite the sliver of good news in terms of sales and employment, the credit crunch is still an issue for all manufacturers and exporters with 59% of businesses reporting difficulties accessing adequate levels of financing, including working capital, extending lines of credit and accessing financing for new technologies and product development.

“Accessing credit continues to be a major hurdle for companies of all sizes to overcome during this major economic downturn,” Myers added. “We need to put pieces of the credit puzzle together quickly or we will see more companies, even very innovative and productive companies, laying off more workers and going out business.

“If companies cannot access credit soon, the financial meltdown could translate into a Canadian industrial meltdown.”

IE