"We have been waiting for the labor market to show signs of a sustained recovery," Manpower Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres said. "The survey results for the third quarter are indicating a trend of hiring intention that has historically proven to be the positive inflection point of accelerated job growth."

Manpower's survey found that 18% of U.S. employers plan to add to their workforces in the third quarter, 8% planned to decreases, 70% planned no changes and 4% didn't know. That resulted in a net employment outlook of 10%, or 6% after seasonal adjustment.

The seasonally adjusted net employment outlook was -2% for the third quarter of 2009.

More than 18,000 U.S. employers were interviewed for the U.S. survey.

Among Canadian employers, there was a seasonally adjusted net employment outlook of 10% for the third quarter. That's up from -1% in the year-ago quarter. More than 1,900 employers were interviewed for the Canadian survey.