NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. employers project healthy hiring for the fourth quarter, despite talk of a possible downturn in the economy, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Twenty-eight percent of the 14,000 employers polled in the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey expect to add employees to their payrolls during the fourth quarter this year. Eight percent said they expect to cut staff and 58 percent expect no change.

The survey also revealed that most sectors - seven of 10 - will keep their hiring consistent with the previous quarter. In the mining sector, more jobs are expected, and employers in the education and finance/insurance/real estate sectors expect less hiring.

Overall, hiring patterns do not show any significant signs of a slowdown, despite concerns about an upcoming slackening in the economy.

"Eleven quarters of consistent survey results show that the U.S. job market is not prone to radical swings at this stage," said Jeffrey Joerres, CEO of Manpower (Charts), a recruiting firm, in a statement. "Even the economic pressures of 2006, such as rising interest rates, energy costs and inflation, were not enough to rattle employer confidence.

"Employers are also experiencing difficulty in finding skilled people, which is contributing to the moderate hiring plans," he added.

The strongest job prospects are expected in the West, while the weakest hiring is predicted for the Midwest.

Internationally, the companies surveyed expected very healthy hiring.

The countries with the strongest fourth-quarter prospects overall are Peru, India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

In Austria, Australia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Italy, Germany and Singapore, companies are reporting their strongest hiring plans since Manpower began surveying those areas in 2003.

In Europe, the best outlooks were in Ireland, Norway, Austria and Sweden.

Canadian employers reported that they expect the strongest hiring activity in six years.

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