NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For the third straight quarter, more U.S. employers said that they will add jobs instead of cut them, according to a survey released Tuesday.
Manpower Inc. (MAN, Fortune 500), a global employment agency, polled 18,000 employers for its quarterly Employment Outlook survey. The survey asked about their plans to hire or fire workers during the third quarter.
The survey found that 18% of employers intend to increase staff, up from 16% in the previous quarter. That's higher than the 15% recorded for the same period last year and marks the third quarter in a row of positive readings.
On the other side of the equation, 8% of employers told Manpower that they planned to decrease hiring during the third quarter. That's the same percentage as in the second quarter, but less than the 13% who reported planned cuts for the third quarter last year.
Job prospects were the strongest in the Northeast, where employers expected a "moderate" increase in hiring. The West region came in the weakest, weighed down in part by Nevada which was the only state to report an overall negative job outlook.
Eleven out of the 13 industries surveyed had a positive hiring outlook for third quarter. The outlook was most favorable in wholesale and retail trade, mining and construction.
"The very interesting thing about this quarter's results is that the positive trend is very broad based," said Melanie Holmes, vice president at Manpower.
The survey comes on the heels of the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, which on Friday showed that the United States added 431,000 jobs in May. But the vast majority of those were temporary Census hires, disappointing many who expected a far greater gain in the private sector and sent global stock markets plummeting.
The survey seemed to support a persistent air of caution among hiring managers -- the number of employers who said that they expected no change in their hiring outlook dipped only slightly to 70% from 73%.
Public-sector jobs are still under pressure, with government hiring expected to fall for the second straight quarter. 
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