Are you cranking up your 2011 recruitment strategy? Research says the overall hiring outlook is the strongest it’s been in three years.

Nearly three-in-ten employers (28%) reported they hired full-time, permanent employees in the first quarter of 2011, the highest since the first quarter of 2008, according to a recent study from CareerBuilder and USA TODAY.

That momentum is expected to continue into the second quarter of the year, researchers said.

Last December, 23% of employers said they expected to hire full-time, permanent employees in the first quarter of 2011.  That number turned out to be 28% — a 5% jump from the same period in 2010.

Ten percent of companies surveyed decreased headcount in the first quarter of 2011, an improvement from 12% last year.

What’s ahead

Another three in 10 (28%) of employers plan to increase their full-time staff in the second quarter — but if current survey trends persist, researchers say, that number may ultimately come in higher.

One dark cloud in all this hiring sunshine:

With more job openings comes more competition for highly skilled workers.  One-third (33%) of employers are concerned that top performers will look for new jobs as the economy improves.  Fourteen percent reported that top talent already left their organization this year.

Workers in general reported more optimism about the job market, according to the survey.  Thirty-one percent of workers said they are likely to start looking for another job as the economy improves.

Tags: CareerBuilder, competition, economy, job market, recruiting