Hiring of contract workers is becoming more attractive for small and medium-sized businesses, according to the new third quarter “SMB Job Generation Outlook” survey released by Lucas Group, an Atlanta-based executive search firm.

The survey found that 42 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses felt hiring of contract workers was more positive now than it was at the same time last year. That’s up from 25 percent who said the same in a similar survey in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Small- and medium-sized firms reporting the contract workers were less attractive fell to 8 percent in the third quarter from 17 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

In addition, the survey found that 49 percent of small- and medium-sized business plan to hire a combination of contract and permanent employees. It also found that 31 percent planned to hire permanent employees only, 13 percent planned to hire contract employees only and 7 percent planned to hire neither contract nor permanent employees.

The survey was conducted by Polaris Market Research on behalf of Lucas Group. It was conducted from Oct. 1 to Oct. 11, 2013 among 100 CEOs, presidents and company owners.

For more on the full survey, click here.