Quarter of U.S. companies plan to hire full-time workers

(MoneyWatch) American companies plan to continue adding full-time workers in the next few months. An online survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers, conducted by Harris Interactive and published by CareerBuilder.com, found that 25 percent of companies expect to add headcount in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The results were similar to last year, when 26 percent of managers expected to add full-time staff in the same time frame.

Where the jobs are

The sectors predicting the largest amount of staffing growth this year were information technology (36 percent), financial services (32 percent) and manufacturing (30 percent).

Geographically, hiring managers in the West were most bullish: 29 percent of companies in the West plan to add full-time staff this year, while in the South 24 percent plan to expand, and in the Northeast and Midwest only 23 percent predict expansion.

• ADP survey: Private businesses added 166K jobs in September
• American Airlines plans to hire 1,500 pilots
• Macy's to hire 83,000 seasonal hires

The bulk of the staffing will be in larger companies. Thirty two percent of hiring managers at companies with 500 or more employees said they plan to add headcount, while only 15 percent of the managers at companies with 50 or fewer employees see expansion in their near future.

Temp jobs

Hiring managers said they also plan to beef up their temporary staffing. Thirty two percent of them plan to add temp workers in the fourth quarter, and 22 percent said they will offer temps already on staff full-time positions.