Thirty-three percent of human resources professional say they plan to hire in the second quarter of this year, up from 24 percent who said the same a year ago, according to a survey of human resources professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Broken down by company size, 35 percent of midsize companies (100 to 499 employees) were likely to add jobs in the second quarter. Large and small companies followed closely, with 33 percent and 32 percent respectively.

Thirty-six percent of survey respondents hired staff in the first quarter of 2011, according to the report.

"Even though large-scale hiring isn't yet occurring, confidence in the job market is being buoyed by signs that the economy has entered a recovery mode after a lengthy recession," said Jennifer Schramm, manager of workplace trends and forecasting in SHRM's research department. "For some organizations, an improved outlook is resulting in increased expectations of productivity as they boost working hours of existing staff. Others are bringing on temporary staff or are hiring full-time regular employees."

The survey also found that job losses continue to decline: Just 7 percent of organizations plan to lay off staff in the second quarter. Twelve percent of companies had layoffs in the first quarter of 2011, down from 20 percent a year ago. Managers and professionals were those most affected by layoffs.

They survey included responses from 441 human resources professionals.