NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The pace of hiring at U.S. companies is expected to remain generally slack in the fourth quarter, with slight increases in the manufacturing sector, according to a survey released Monday.

Job seekers "can expect little improvement" in the employment outlook, Manpower Inc. (MAN: Research, Estimates), the world's No. 2 employment agency, said in its fourth-quarter hiring survey.

"The improvement in planned hiring activity we saw in the past two quarterly surveys has marginally slowed," Manpower Chairman and CEO Jeffery Joerres said..

Of nearly 16,000 employers interviewed, Manpower said, 62 percent intend to leave current staff levels steady, up slightly from 59 percent in the third quarter.

Twenty-four percent expect to hire more people in the fourth quarter, down from the 27 percent that forecast increases in the third quarter of 2002, which was the best level recorded by the survey in 15 months. When adjusted for seasonal fluctuations that affect hiring patterns, employment prospects were unchanged from the prior quarter, Manpower said.

Seven of 10 sectors included expect reduced or unchanged hiring activity compared with expectations in the prior quarter.

Hiring expectations for the nondurable goods manufacturing sector in the fourth quarter were up 7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from last year and down 2 percent from the third quarter.

"This plateau is not unlike previous recovery periods, where the first few quarters of improvement are followed by a short adjustment phase as employers seek confirmation of a changed business environment," Joerres added.

Manpower found that slightly more companies planned to reduce their work force, with 9 percent foreseeing cuts in the fourth quarter, versus the 8 percent that said three months earlier they expected to make cuts in the third quarter.

In July, the most recent month available, the U.S. jobless rate held steady at 5.9 percent, while the economy generated a scant 6,000 new jobs. Combined with a report that showed overall economic growth slowed to 1.1 percent in the second quarter from 5.0 percent in the first three months of the year, the data fueled talk the recovery could be stalling.

Joerres also said that employment levels are likely to hold steady nationwide, except in the West, where hiring is expected to be down slightly from third quarter and last year. He added that the strongest manufacturing prospects were in the Midwest, and the highest demand for workers in the services sector was expected in the South.

In the fourth quarter, the durable goods manufacturing sector is seen steady with expectations ahead of the third quarter, with new positions expected to be available at 21 percent of companies surveyed. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the outlook is a bit brighter -- hiring expectations for the fourth quarter are up 6 percent over the prior year.

The only sector in the Manpower survey to anticipate improvement over both last quarter and last year was the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate area.  

--from staff and wire reports