I read a CFO Zone article this morning: http://www.cfozone.com/index.php/Newsflash/Merit-raises-are-coming-back.html full of encouraging statistics for the year ahead of us.  Companies are budgeting 3% in merit increases on average this year.  It's still a bit down from the 3.5-4% averages we saw per recession, but it's a notable improvement of the 2.7% budgeted last year. 

In addition, some 42% of companies plan to hire "critical skills" employees this year, and 40% are seeking professional and technical employee additions.  It has been my direct experience that companies are moving faster with lower level positions (ie less expensive resources) than higher cost executives.  I think this is a natural starting point and will begin to shift as companies develop greater confidence that the recovery is “real”. 

Some of the intended hiring could end up covering attrition as overworked employees may be seeking "greener grass" at new companies.  Because of the layoffs and hiring freeze actions of the past 3 years, some employees feel overworked and underappreciated.  These employees will likely seek to move as the job market improves, but the overall message appears to be one of positive strides out of recession.

Some of these companies are turning to contract labor to fill gaps in their infrastructure.  Often, a company can acquire access to a considerable amount more experience and knowledge in a part time resource for the same cost as a full time employee with less developed skills. 

This applies to me directly as a part time CFO, but it's also applicable in other fields such as IT, HR, and Social Media.  Smaller businesses have many of the same needs as large companies in these areas, but have less working capital available to hire full time resources, and less work for that employee to complete.  Part time employees and contract labor can provide a perfect solution until the position is “big enough” to occupy a full time employee.