Delhi, India Metro Train

The figures are in. According to Forbes, the U.S. has a 9 percent hiring outlook for the first quarter of 2011. Under the circumstances, this is decent, if not good news for Americans. The adjusted Outlook for Quarter 1 2011 is up from +5% during the same period last year and +5% during Quarter 4 2010. The latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey also revealed:

-Five Straight Quarters of Employment Growth: Employers report a positive overall hiring Outlook since the start of 2010, according to seasonally adjusted data.

-Widespread Stability: The percentage of employers planning to keep staff levels unchanged persists at unsurpassed levels, and those in seven of the 13 industry sectors surveyed expect to remain relatively stable compared to Quarter 4 2010.

-Current Outlook Still Below Past Decade’s Average: Despite positive signals, the Quarter 1 2011 Outlook is nearly five percentage points below the average Outlook from 2001 to 2010.

Although the hiring outlook in the U.S. shows positive signals, other countries are set to hire at a much higher rate. India is first place on the Forbes list of best countries for new jobs, with a 42 percent net hiring outlook for the first quarter of 2011. China is close behind at 40 percent, and Taiwan is third with a net employment outlook of 37 percent. In fourth is Brazil with a 36 percent net hiring outlook, Turkey is in fifth with 27 percent, and Singapore is in sixth with a 26 percent net hiring outlook.

“The results are striking, if not surprising,” Forbes said referring to “that unbelievable job growth” reflected in the survey of 64,000 human resource directors and senior hiring managers from public and private companies worldwide.

The survey shows that almost half, 47 percent of them, of expectations for hiring in the first quarter of 2011 came from 10 countries in the Americas, 24 percent from eight countries in Asia and the Pacific, and 29 percent from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“This is very much a macro-economic look at new job creation,” the staffing firm’s chairman and chief executive, Jeffrey Joerres, was cited as saying.