Fifteen percent of marketing/creative executives plan to add full-time staff in the third quarter of 2012, according to The Creative Group hiring index for marketing and advertising professionals. Four percent plan to cut staff, and 79 percent expect to make no changes to current staffing levels.

The net 11 percent of executives planning to hire in the third quarter is down eight points from the year-ago period and up one point from the second quarter.

The Creative Group hiring index for marketing and advertising professionals is based on more than 500 telephone interviews conducted through an independent research firm with approximately 375 marketing executives selected randomly from companies with 100 or more employees and 125 advertising executives randomly selected from agencies with 20 or more employees in the United States.

The Creative Group is a marketing/creative staffing division of Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE: RHI).