According to the Q2 2015 Vistage CEO Confidence Index Survey (http://www.vistage.com/press-center/vistage-ceo-survey/), CEOs plan on adding fewer workers to their payroll despite cautious optimism about economic improvement.

“If the recession taught us anything, it’s that it’s better to be prudent than over-optimistic,” said Dr. Richard Curtin, an economist at the University of Michigan who analyzes the survey results each quarter. “We’re seeing a shift in attitude, and CEOs are not anticipating the same strong economic rebound that occurred in the second half of last year.”

While the pace of increase in employee hiring has eased, locating, hiring, training and retaining staff remains an important issue for CEOs, with 35 percent citing this issue as their most important. A tightening labor market and rising wages have amplified the importance of this issue.

Other notable survey findings include:

• Despite reports that firms do not plan on increasing the number of workers on their payrolls, there was no increase in the proportion of firms that expect to reduce their workforce, remaining at just five percent, the same as last year at this time.

• More than 70 percent of all small firms reported expected revenue gains, while profits were expected to increase by more than half of small firms (56 percent) in the second quarter of the year.

• Two-in-three firms reported plans to offer more flexible work options to their employees, and among these firms, 30 percent reported cost savings due to these flexible options (across all firms, cost saving were reported by 19 percent).