CFOs see brighter times ahead for their companies, with 64%predicting revenues will rise in 2011, according to a recent Bankof America Merrill Lynch survey. That confidence may also translateinto more employment, with 47% of the CFOs saying their companieswill hire more workers next year, up from 28% in last year'ssurvey.

Laura Whitley, global commercial products executive at Bank ofAmerica Merrill Lynch, calls the 2011 hiring plans “a very positivesignal that the mood and momentum for companies going forward ispositive.”

The finance chiefs' optimism about their own company's prospectscontrasts with their skepticism about the overall economy. Just 56%of the 801 CFOs surveyed see the U.S. economy expanding in 2011,down from 66% who had predicted it would grow in 2010. And the CFOsgave the economy an average score of 47, on a scale of 1 to 100,with 1 being very weak and 100 very strong. That's up from lastyear's reading of 44, but Whitley notes that last year's readingwas the lowest in the 13 years Bank of America has been conductingthe survey.