December is the first month since July 2012 that hiring in the U.S. service sector will not increase on a year-over-year basis, according to the leading indicators of national employment report released today by the Society for Human Resource Management. However, hiring in the manufacturing sector is expected to increase year over year.

“Holiday hiring last year was very strong,” Jennifer Schramm, manager of workforce trends at SHRM, said in a press release. “The decline expected this December in the service sector suggests that employers are a bit more cautious this year about holiday hiring.”

The report’s survey found that 38.9 percent of service-sector companies plan to hire in December while 10.0 percent plan to reduce their workforces for a net increase of 28.9 percent, down from a net increase of 34.0 percent in December 2012.

Among manufacturing employers, 40.9 percent plan to add staff in December and 9.3 percent plan to cut their workforces for a net increase of 31.6 percent, up from a net increase of 25.3 percent in December 2012.

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