Fort Myers seasonal hiring bright

Here's a sign that businesses expect a good winter season this year.

Staffing firm Manpower says 26% of the businesses it surveyed in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area expect to hire in the fourth quarter of this year. That is one of the highest percentages of any area of the country, the firm says.

That's better than the same time last year, when 22% of businesses in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area said they'd be hiring more people in the fourth quarter.

Typically, the third quarter is the slowest for the region because there are fewer visitors and seasonal residents due to hot and unpredictable weather. Earlier this year, 13% of businesses in the Fort Myers area said they planned to hire more people in the third quarter.

The same rings true in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, where 24% of businesses told Manpower they plan to hire in the fourth quarter. Earlier this year, just 11% said they planned to hire in the third quarter.

Still, during the recession few people were hiring even for the fourth quarter. You can add the Manpower survey results as one more indication that the recovery is progressing nicely.