Fort Collins-Loveland area employers expect to hire at a "bullish" pace in the second quarter of 2010, according to the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released Tuesday.

Between April and June, 24 percent of companies interviewed for the survey said they planned to hire more employees while only 4 percent said they expected to reduce their payrolls. Among survey participants, the Fort Collins-Loveland area employment outlook was the third-best in the nation with a Net Employment Outlook of 20 percent.

The Net Employment Outlook is a Manpower measurement derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting the percentage of employers expecting a decrease in hiring activity.

"Hiring levels in our area appear to be significantly stronger compared with last quarter when the Net Employment Outlook was 1 percent," said Kathy Olson, local Manpower spokeswoman. "In addition, employers are also considerably more optimistic about hiring activity as compared with one year ago, when the Net Employment Outlook was 9 percent."

By comparison, Greeley and Denver area employers expect to hire at a "moderate" pace during the second quarter. For Greeley, 10 percent of the companies interviewed said they expected to hire more employees while 7 percent said they would likely reduce their payrolls. In the Denver area, 13 percent of companies said they planned to hire more staff while 9 percent said they expected to reduce their employee numbers.

The national survey interviewed 18,000 U.S. employers. Nationwide, 16 percent of employers said they would increase hiring while 8 percent said they would cut jobs.