Business activity expectations have improved, and companies are looking for new employees.

According to the NBU, the index of business activity expectations rose to 47.5 from 41 in January. Trade enterprises are the only ones among the surveyed sectors to assess their business activity positively – the sectoral index increased to 50.1 from 38.9. Industrial enterprises softened their expectations but maintained pessimistic views about the results of their economic activity, at 48.3 (43.7 in January).

Enterprises in the service sector also moderated their expectations but maintained negative assessments of their financial prospects – the index rose from 40.4 to 45.3 in January. Construction enterprises gave the most pessimistic estimates of their economic results for the fifth month in a row, at 43.7 against 31.9 in January.

At the same time, the NBU noted that businesses are more actively looking for new employees than they were a year ago, and some companies, primarily in the trade and services sector, are planning to expand their staff. However, enterprises often fail to find specialists due to structural distortions in the labor market.