More than half of small to mid-sized businesses plan to hire amid persistent concerns regarding healthcare costs, talent availability and rising competitive worries, according to the SMB Job Generation Outlook survey released today by executive search firm Lucas Group.

The survey found 43% of small and mid-sized businesses plan to hire additional employees in the next quarter and 7% plan to downsize. However, SMB hiring optimism is consistently stronger when looking ahead one year versus one quarter: 55% said they’d hire in the coming year.

The SMB Job Generation Outlook has surveyed over 2,500 SMB executives and is conducted in coordination with Polaris Marketing Research and Goutam Challagalla, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology Scheller College of Business.

To download the full survey, click here.