Hiring managers and human resources professionals plan to add more contingent staff in the second quarter, according to a new survey by CareerBuilder. Thirty-four percent of employers plan to hire contract or temporary workers in the second quarter of this year compared to 26 percent who said the same for the second quarter of last year, the survey found.

In addition, 24 percent plan to transition some contract staff to permanent employees in the second quarter, up from 17 percent in last year’s survey.

Employers also increased their hiring of contingent workers in the first quarter, according to the CareerBuilder survey. Thirty-seven percent added contingent staff in the first quarter, up from 29 percent in the first quarter of last year.

Overall, 30 percent of employers surveyed plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in the second quarter. The percentage of employers planning to hire is almost back to pre-recession levels and is up from 28 percent in the previous year.

Six percent of employers expect to decrease headcount, the same percentage as did for 2011, and an improvement from 9 percent for 2010.

Also, 31 percent of employers currently have jobs for which they cannot find qualified employees, up from 24 percent in 2011. Eighty-five percent of respondents said that their company was not able to create lower skill positions because of an inability to fill higher skill positions that would be tied to those roles.

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,303 hiring managers and human resource professionals between Feb. 9 and March 2.