Employers expect to add new jobs in the coming months, but they don’t plan to ramp up hiring in a significant way until substantial economic gains occur, market research suggests.

“Cautious optimism” remains the phrase du jour in the employment outlook, as recent market research suggests employers expect to add new jobs in 2012 but are waiting to see how the economy shapes up before they ramp up hiring in a substantial way.

The United States labor market is expected to improve in the first quarter of 2012, a new report from ManpowerGroup indicates. The employment services company says employers in 45 states report positive hiring intentions for the first quarter of 2012. That matches the figure for the final quarter of 2011 and indicates the ninth consecutive quarter of national employment growth.

In a survey of more than 18,000 U.S. employers, ManpowerGroup found that 14 percent expect to add to their staff during the first quarter of 2012.

According to Manpower’s findings, employers have a positive Q1 employment outlook in 12 of the 13 industry sectors tracked, including: mining; wholesale and retail trade; professional and business services; durable goods manufacturing; non-durable goods manufacturing; education and health services; transportation and utilities; and government. Construction was the sole industry sector to have a negative outlook.

Tech hiring is also expected to see a major boost in the first half of 2012. A survey last month from Dice.com found that roughly 65 percent of hiring managers for tech companies plan to increase hiring in the next six months, with 27 percent of those hiring managers looking to expand staffs by more than 20 percent. Tech professionals with six to 10 years of experience are highly sought after, followed by those with two to five years in the trenches. (According to professional services firm Jones Lang LaSalle in late September, high-tech jobs have been growing four times faster than the national average since February 2010.)

However, the broader hiring outlook is considerably murkier.

Nine percent of employers surveyed by Manpower expect a decline in their payrolls in Q1, and approximately 70 percent of respondents anticipate making no change to staff levels. The remaining 7 percent of employers are undecided about early-2012 hiring plans.

The rise from 3 percent to 7 percent is the most significant quarterly increase since 1977 and represents the highest percentage of uncertain employers surveyed since 2005.

“Slow, but steady momentum has improved employer confidence, which is likely why more employers are planning to hire in the first quarter,” Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup’s president of the Americas, said in an announcement of the findings. “This uptick is encouraging, but the historically high proportion of employers that are unsure of their hiring plans indicates continued uncertainty about the future and ongoing caution when it comes to staffing plans.”

Manpower’s findings for Q1 are in line with CareerBuilder.com‘s annual jobs forecast, which indicates cautious optimism throughout 2012.

In a survey of more than 3,000 hiring managers and HR pros across industries and company sizes, the job-search site found that nearly a quarter of respondents (23 percent) plan to hire full-time employees in 2012, comparable to 2011. Seven percent expect to decrease headcount, the same as in 2011 and an improvement from 9 percent in 2010. Fifty-nine percent anticipate no change in their staff levels, while 11 percent are unsure.

“Barring any major economic upsets, we expect 2012 to bring a better hiring picture than 2011, especially in the second half of the year,” CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson said in a statement. “We’re likely to see gradual improvements in hiring across categories as companies respond to increased market demands.”

In its latest employment forecast, Kiplinger projects that 2011′s pace of job creation — 130,000 a month through November — will accelerate to 150,000 a month in 2012, adding up to 1.8 million new jobs.

While there are green shoots forecast for employment conditions, the U.S. economy is not adding jobs at a pace that signals a solid recovery. As a result, millions of Americans are still struggling to find work. At the same time, data suggest that employers are having difficulty connecting with job seekers that possess the skills they are looking for.

In its 2011/2012 Talent Management and Rewards Survey, Towers Watson found that nearly six in 10 U.S. companies (59 percent) are struggling to attract critical-skill employees. Moreover, 42 percent also report having trouble attracting top-performing employees.

“There’s no doubt that employers need more hiring flexibility, but at the same time, they continue to struggle to find talent with mission-critical skills,” Manpower’s Prising says. “On one hand you have CEOs starting and stopping hiring based on market trends, but on the other hand their hiring managers are struggling to find the talent with specific skills.

“These dynamics, the lack of demand for products and services and the ongoing skills mismatch, profoundly impact hiring decisions,” Prising concludes.

In 2012, the reported skills gap will prompt employers to take “re-skilling” workers into their own hands: according to CareerBuilder, 38 percent of employers plan to train people who don’t have experience in their particular industry and hire them for positions within their organizations in 2012.

Earlier: 2011 Hiring Outlook

Resources

Manpower Employment Outlook Survey — United States
ManpowerGroup, December 2011

…Survey Reports Most Promising U.S. Hiring Outlook Since 2008
ManpowerGroup, December 2011

The Dice Report: Special Edition, Hiring Survey
Dice, December 2011

High-Technology Industry U.S. Office Outlook
Jones Lang LaSalle, September 2011

High-Tech Job Creation Growing Nearly Four Times Faster than Other Sectors…
Jones Lang LaSalle, Sept. 28, 2011

2012 Job Forecast
CareerBuilder.com, December 2011

Hiring Outlook for 2012 Remains Cautiously Optimistic…
CareerBuilder.com, Dec. 28, 2011

Economic Outlook: Employment
Kiplinger, Dec. 2, 2011 (last updated)

The 2011/2012 Talent Management and Rewards Study, North America
Towers Watson, October 2011

More U.S. Companies Having Difficulty Attracting Critical-Skill Employees…
Towers Watson, Oct. 10, 2011

Monster Employment Index U.S. Rises 10% on Annual Basis
Monster.com, Dec. 2, 2011