A new survey from KPMG shows that optimism is improving among U.S. manufacturing and service industry executives, who say the worst is behind us, CNBC said today.

The survey found that 68 percent of manufacturing executives believe business activity will be higher in the next 12 months. That’s up from 57 percent in October 2010.

Forty-one percent of those executives say they plan to hire more in the weeks and months ahead. That number was just 28 percent five months ago.

As far as revenues are concerned, 65 percent of manufacturers surveyed by KPMG expect revenues to rise in the next year.

“American manufacturing is on the rise because companies are rebalancing, and it is pretty clear demand is picking up nationwide,” said Lynne Doughtie, KPMG’s national managing partner for advisory services.

Doughtie added that optimism is also increasing in Brazil, Russia, India and China. Then there’s Europe. Despite debt problems in Portugal and Ireland, manufacturers are also seeing a brighter future on the continent.

In the U.S. service sector, 61 percent of executives believe business activity will pick up within the next 12 months. However, they’re not quite as optimistic on hiring. Only 28 percent of those who responded expect to add jobs in the short term, a slight increase from October 2010, CNBC said.