CareerBuilder’s latest nationwide survey shows that small businesses – one of the major drivers for economic recovery and job growth – will be hiring in the second half of 2010. Thirty-two percent of companies with 500 or fewer employees plan to add employees in the months of July through December.

Twenty-one percent will hire full-time workers, 11 percent will hire part-timers and 6 percent will hire contractors or temporary workers. Of companies with 50 or fewer employees, 24 percent plan to hire in the second half of 2010. The survey was completed in June and included more than 1,300 employers in businesses with 500 or fewer employees and more than 4,400 workers.

In addition to jobs being added at existing companies, new small businesses may be emerging to serve as a primary or secondary source of income. Of workers who have started a small business in the past year, 96 percent reported that they run a small business in addition to another job. More than one-quarter (26 percent) of workers who were laid off in the past six months and have not found jobs said they are considering starting their own business instead of finding a new job.

“Historically, it has been the small business sector that has created the most jobs at the end of an economic downturn, allowing the overall job market to bounce back faster,” said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. “The intellectual capital that companies were forced to lay off over the last 18-24 months was substantial, and it is not surprising that many individuals are using their business skills to create their own opportunities.”

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses employ just more than half of all private-sector employees and account for more than half of nonfarm private gross domestic product. They have also generated 64 percent of net new jobs in the past 15 years.