According to the findings of the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, U.S. hiring intentions are the highest in 10 years. The findings reveal employers across the country anticipate dding to staff in Q1 2018.

U.S. firms were asked, "How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of March 2018 compared to the current quarter."

Twenty-one percent of those polled say they plan to increase staff levels, 5% plan to decrease staff levels, 71% plan to maintain staff levels and 3% say they don't know, which resulted in a seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook of 19% for Q1 2018. This compared to a Net Employment Outlook of 17% in Q4 2017 and 16% in Q1 2017, the findings reveal.

"Nationwide, employers in all 13 industry sectors expect to add staff in Q1 2018," the survey states.

"The top outlooks by industry are: Leisure & Hospitality (+28%), Transportation & Utilities (+26%), Professional & Business Services (+23%), Wholesale & Retail Trade (+23%), Durable Goods Manufacturing (+19%) and Construction (+18%)," ManpowerGroup notes.

In terms of industry breakdown, job prospects in transportation and utilities were the strongest since Q1 1982, when the survey began reporting seasonally adjusted data, and "employers in construction and the durable goods manufacturing sectors forecast the strongest outlooks in more than a decade," the survey says.

"We're seeing a renaissance in industries such as construction and manufacturing in the U.S.," says Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup North America.

"These are not the jobs of the past - many are highly skilled roles that will build America's future. Strong hiring intentions tell us employers have positions to fill, yet we know they're struggling to find people with the right skills to fill them."

In addition to strong sector intentions, employers in all four U.S. regions "have a positive outlook for the Q1 2018 hiring plans," the survey says.

While the hiring outlook remained "relatively stable" in the Northeast and West and "unchanged" in the South compared to Q4, "in the Midwest, the Net Employment Outlook increased by 2 percentage points" and "is the strongest reported since the beginning of 2001," ManpowerGroup reveals.

At the state level, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii and Utah report the strongest Net Employment Outlooks, the survey adds.

"Of the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas, the strongest job prospects are expected in Cape Coral, Florida.; Ogden, Utah; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Los Angeles; Phoenix; and Charlotte, North Carolina," the survey says.

For the survey, Manpower conducted 11,500 interviews with employers in the U.S., "including all 50 states, the top Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico" about their hiring intentions in Q1 2018.

Global hiring outlook upbeat
In this recent release, ManpowerGroup also included the findings of interviews with "nearly 59,000 employers across 43 countries and territories" about their Q1 hiring intentions.

The survey showed "workforce gains of varying margins are forecast by employers in 41 of 43 countries and territories during the January-March time frame."

Key for the world economy, "for the second consecutive quarter since the global financial crisis in 2009, employers report no negative outlooks among the 43 countries and territories," the survey notes.

"Employers in a number of countries," such as Australia, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania and the U.S., "report their strongest hiring plans in five years or more," the survey adds.

In addition, there are signs "the volatility recently observed in some countries - most notably in Brazil, China and India - is declining," ManpowerGroup notes.

The Q2 2018 ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey is scheduled to be released March 13, 2018.