Most U.S. employers plan to keep their payrolls stable early next year, according to a survey out Wednesday that points to a steady, but not stellar, employment environment heading into 2008.
Sixty percent of hiring managers said they planned no changes in the number of full-time, permanent employees at their companies in the first quarter, the same percentage who said their staffing levels were unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to an online survey for USA TODAY and CareerBuilder.com by Harris Interactive.

Twenty-nine percent of those surveyed expected to add workers in the first three months of the new year, down from 30% who beefed up their workforce in the fourth quarter. According to previous surveys, 32% of employers added workers in the third quarter, and 41% expanded their workforces in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, 7% said they expected to cut staff from January to March, down from 9% who did so in the final three months of 2007.

"The job market continues to slowly but steadily downshift," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "The good news is that the weaker job market is due to less hiring and not increased layoffs."