Employers in both the manufacturing and service sectors plan to cut more jobs than they add in April, according to the leading indicators of national employment report from the Society for Human Resources Management.

The report's survey found that 27.2% of service-sector employers plan to cut staff in April while 21.7% plan to add staff for a net decrease in employment of 5.5%. That's down sharply from a net increase of 35.2% in April 2008.

In the manufacturing sector, employers estimated a net decrease in employment of 14.5% in April, compared with a net increase of 39.0% for the same month last year.

The report's measure of recruiting difficulty, which looked at trends in March, found that only 2.7% of manufacturing employers were reporting increased difficulty in recruiting. And only 1.7% of service-sector employers reported the same.

The report is based on a survey of private-sector human resource professionals at more than 500 manufacturing and more than 500 service-sector companies.