WASHINGTON -- Few employers plan to ramp up hiring early next year, two surveys show -- evidence that the economic recovery isn't likely to create many jobs anytime soon.

That will mean fierce competition for job openings that do exist. Nearly 6.3 unemployed workers, on average, are vying for each opening, government figures released Tuesday show. When the recession began, only 1.7 jobless workers were competing for each opening.

More of America's largest companies will shrink their staffs than will hire in the next six months, according to a quarterly survey from the Business Roundtable, a group of large-company CEOs released Tuesday.

Nineteen percent of the CEOs expect to expand their work forces, while 31 percent predict a decrease in the next six months, the survey found.

That's slightly better than the 13 percent who expected to increase hiring three months earlier.

At that time, 40 percent forecast cuts.

More chief executives foresee higher sales and capital spending compared with three months ago.

But ``it still will take some time for these gains to translate into more jobs,'' said Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications and chairman of the Roundtable.

Separately, a survey of 28,000 employers by staffing company Manpower found that hiring may improve in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the current quarter -- but any gains will likely be slight.

Manpower said its hiring index rose to 6. It was the first positive reading since the first quarter of 2009. Still, that's far below the 18 the index reached in the fourth quarter of 2007, when the recession began.

``Companies are seeing some demand so they don't want to let anyone else go,'' Jeffrey Joerres, chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Manpower, told Bloomberg News in an interview.

``They anticipate a slow but positive 2010,'' he added.

Economists say employment at large firms is likely to remain flat through much of 2010. Many companies already have hit their hiring targets for what's expected to be a weak and bumpy recovery.

``The uncertainty and lack of visibility is holding back any type of real optimism in the labor market,'' Joerres said. ``It's starting to get better, but only slightly better.''