European business and consumer confidence climbed for the third month in a row in June but is still near the lowest point in two decades, the European Commission said Monday. It said main players in the economy "seem to be gaining confidence that the crisis is easing" as industrial and services companies said they expected to be employing more people in future and consumers worried less about losing their jobs. More optimism among consumers, the services sector and industry pushed an indicator of economic sentiment to 73.3 in June from 70.2 in May in the 16 nations that use the euro, the EU executive said. Across the 27-nation European Union it rose to 71.1 from 67.9.Despite the improvement, economists at Unicredit said this was still a "clearly recessionary" level. In fact, a separate EU survey of euro-zone industry managers warned it is too soon to call an end to the economic downturn. Manufacturers' forecast for orders hit new record lows, it said, warning that industrial output is likely to stay subdued in June after shrinking in May. More consumers said they saw the overall economy and their personal finances getting better over the next year. They also said they were slightly more likely to make major purchases - such as a car or household goods - now and in the next 12 months. But euro-zone consumers said they were not more willing to buy a house or carry out home improvements.