The survey of human-resource executives at 175 mostly midsize and large U.S. firms by consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc. found that 33% plan to unfreeze salaries within the next six months and 79% within the next year. It appears that employers are becoming more optimistic and adding new jobs. Even if they are not adding new jobs, reducing number of layoffs alone will help the economy.

The Watson Wyatt survey found employers will be slower to restore changes in benefit programs — and many recent changes to health-care plans may become permanent. More details about the survey are here.

I am getting more and more furious as the days pass by. Few minutes ago, I read the news about how our banks want to hire foreign workers to fill the positions. (Hey, is there any position left in those banks?!)

AP investigation revealed that banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs. Click here to read the complete news story on this. News like this makes me sick.

It’s a well known fact that these banks don’t have morale or ethics, otherwise they wouldn’t have put the country in this mess. These guys begged for our money and they are still begging. But, they don’t want to hire the American workers. God, what can I say?

It has been more than two months since I wrote “It’s gloomy out there“. It’s getting gloomier. Every passing week brings more bad news. Big-name companies, that are generally thought as safe for employment, are also laying off big time.

Last week Microsoft announced termination of 5,000 employees, Intel announced the elimination of 6,000 jobs and United Airlines said it would get rid of 1,000 jobs. More than 40,000 employees received the pink slips today. Unemployment is hovering around 7%, it ‘s estimated to reach 10%.

In a survey by the National Association for Business Economics, 39% of companies plan to reduce payrolls over the next six months, while 17% plan to increase employment. Only the services sector continues to create jobs. Survey respondents continued to grow more pessimistic about the macroeconomic outlook.

Related Links: Job killing recession | Unemployment rate surged to 7.2% | Five legal ways to work from home

It’s official now. The 15 countries that use the euro are officially in a recession, the European Union said today, as their economies shrank for a second straight quarter because of the world financial crisis and sinking demand. More on this in Yahoo Finance.

Citibank is planning to fire 60,000 employees over next few months, starting with 10,000 this month. Its chairman also may be leaving. You can read more about this here. Sun Microsystems is also planning to layoff 6,000 employees.

Related Link: It’s gloomy out there

Just when you think we are out of the woods, something else comes up. Today started with lot of bad news. Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) forecast that economic output would shrink 1.4 percent this quarter for the developed countries and keep contracting until the middle of next year. OECD’s report can be found here. Economic activity is expected to fall by 0.9 percent in the US next year, by 0.5 percent in the Euro area and by 0.1 percent in Japan as OECD countries enter a protracted slowdown, according to latest projections.

The number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits has jumped to a level not seen since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as companies cut more jobs. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims last week increased by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000. It’s much higher than what analysts expected. So, the stock market is falling again today.

Last week, Cisco systems warned about declining orders. Today, Intel warned about the same and slashed more than $1 billion from its sales forecast and dialed its profit expectations way back. Intel’s profit is being hurt badly. The company’s closely watched gross profit margin will now come in around 55 % of revenue versus the previous guidance of 59 %. If this is not enough to discourage the investors, Walmart also trimmed its earning outlook because of global economic crisis.

Another gloomy data today showed that foreclosure rate is up 25 % year over a year. We wrote about real estate slowdown few days ago. Today’s data reinforces our point of view. It’s going to get uglier before the situation can turn around.

Few hours ago, George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management, said “a deep recession is now inevitable and the possibility of a depression cannot be ruled out.” Ok, there you have it. Just watch your expenses and increase your savings.