With a stable quarter of hiring predicted nationwide at a rate of 27 percent, Utah and the West are poised to continue to outpace other regions, and the state continues to outpace most of its neighbors.

"There is a terrific need to fill a lot of positions" in Utah, said Manpower Inc.'s Robert Katz in explaining why employers here are planning to add positions at rates that dwarf their counterparts elsewhere.

In Salt Lake City, for example, 47 percent of companies said they intend to increase hiring in the next three months, 53 percent said staffing would remain the same and none of those responding to the survey said they planned to cut positions. In the Orem and Ogden areas, the numbers were even more robust, with 60 percent of employers in Davis County saying they would be doing more hiring and 50 percent of the companies in Weber County predicting they would. Only 3 percent forecast cuts in the county directly south of Salt Lake City, while 9 percent did so in Weber and neighboring Davis County.

The comparative numbers nationally were 27 percent planning to hire, 58 percent remaining the same and 9 percent planning to cut positions. In the West region, 33 percent of employers said they planned to increase hiring, with 10 percent saying they planned cuts.

"Utah continues to buck the national trend and is even outperforming most of the rest of the West," said Katz, director of Utah operations for Manpower, a Milwaukee-based global staffing firm. "It's been that way for about two years, but when you get up around 50 percent of the employers who plan to hire, that's one of the top rates in the nation.

"The state created 57,000 jobs last year and it appears it could create another 57,000 this year so long as there are enough bodies to fill them."

That has become a challenge for some employers in Utah, whose historically low unemployment rates for most of the past year have created a job market of full employment, meaning that almost everyone who is looking for a job can find one.

The national numbers seem to indicate that employers are holding off on making any big moves amid the ups and downs on Wall Street and a sagging housing market, said Jonas Prising, president of Manpower North America. Given the uncertainty about the economy, though, stable hiring is good news, he said.

The latest survey continues a 15-quarter stretch of fairly strong hiring intentions, in which more than 20 percent of companies surveyed said they plan to add to their staffs.

The quarterly survey, which has been conducted since 1962, shows little change from the last quarter is expected in a majority of job categories, including construction, finance, retail, education and services.

Mining and transportation companies and public utilities expect a slight downturn.

Job growth in the South, Midwest and Northeast was stable.