MILWAUKEE - Greeley area employers expect to hire at a "respectable pace" during the second quarter of 2009 with a healthy jump in hiring expected over the first quarter, according to a report released Tuesday by Milwaukee-based Manpower Inc.

The quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey showed 18 percent of Greeley area companies planned to hire more employees between April and June while 8 percent said they would likely reduce their payrolls.

"Employers anticipate staff levels to be higher than the first quarter of 2009 when 10 percent of companies interviewed intended to add employees and 10 percent planned to reduce staff levels," said Kathy Olson, local Manpower spokeswoman.

The Greeley area was singled out in the latest Manpower survey as one of the "strongest survey areas" across the nation for the second quarter.

The Fort Collins-Loveland area was also expected to hire at a "steady pace" for the second quarter, with 19 percent of companies interviewed planning to hire more workers and 10 percent planning to cut staffs.

Meanwhile, 14 percent of Boulder area employers said they would likely hire more people during the quarter and only 10 percent of Denver-Aurora area employers said they anticipated increasing their staffs during the quarter.

Nationwide, the Manpower survey showed U.S. employers projecting a "considerably slower hiring pace" for the second quarter.

"A significant number of employers surveyed anticipate no change in their employment intentions for the coming quarter," said Jeffrey Joerres, Manpower's chairman and CEO. "This tells us that in this difficult economic environment, employers are attempting to manage the tension between generating a profit and maintaining their workforce infrastructure."

Of 31,800 employers surveyed nationwide, 15 percent anticipated increasing their payrolls, 14 percent expected to pare them and 67 percent expected no change in their staff levels.