A survey of bank executives conducted by accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton shows that the majority of them think the worst for U.S. economy is over. Around 45 percent of them said they expect improvement in the next six months, a sharp improvement from the 24 percent that answered yes to that question six months ago.

Around the same number expect things to stay the same, while only 11 percent see the economy worsening this year.

On the job front, a quarter of the executives said that their bank will increase hiring in the next six months, up from 18 percent in December; while the number of banks that plan to decrease staff has dropped slightly to 16 percent from 18 percent in December.

In addition, more than one-third (35 percent) of bankers expect their local economy to improve in the next six months, up from 22 percent in December 2009. Only nine percent of bankers expect their local economy to get worse, down from 18 percent in December.

“Overall, it appears that bankers believe that the economy has finally turned a corner,” said John Ziegelbauer, head of Grant Thornton’s Financial Institutions practice, in a release accompanying the survey results.