U.S. employers plan a moderate increase in hiring for the first quarter compared with the fourth, but hiring will still be down on a year-over-year basis, according to the employment outlook survey released today by Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN).

"There is still a lot of ground to make up in the labor market, but the overall increase in hiring intentions is clearly a positive," Manpower Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres said. "The first quarter is a seasonally slow hiring quarter. To see an increase over the fourth quarter is unusual and seems to indicate increased confidence levels from employers."

Twelve percent of U.S. employers said they plan to hire in the first quarter and 12% said they plan to cut staff for a net employment outlook of zero, according to the survey. However, the new employment outlook becomes a 6% increase when seasonally adjusted.

In comparison, the seasonally adjusted net employment outlook was a 2% decline for the fourth quarter and a 9% increase for the first quarter of 2009.

Also for 2010's first quarter, 73% of employers said they planned no changes to their workforces. That's the highest percentage planning no change in the survey's history.

The Manpower survey included 28,000 interviews with U.S. employers across the U.S.

Canadian employers also plan to add more staff in the first quarter than in the fourth, according to Manpower's Canadian employment outlook survey.

The seasonally adjusted net employment outlook for Canada was 13% for the first quarter. That's up from 7% in the fourth quarter, but down from 18% in the first quarter of 2009.

The survey questioned 1,900 Canadian employers.