Companies are expected to hire a combined total of 21,000 new employees in the first quarter of 2009, but they also plan to lay off more than 26,000 people, resulting a reduction of about 5,600 workers, the survey shows.

It will be the second consecutive quarterly fall following a decrease of about 26,000 in the fourth quarter of this year, CLA officials said.

The CLA ascribed the continued decline in the number of new recruits to shrinking business inflicted by lower market demand at home and abroad for products and services due to the global financial turmoil and plummeting stock markets around the world.

Around 59 percent of companies planning job cuts in the first three months of next year said they had decided to do so because of “contracting business.”

About 44 percent of the firms said they will “streamline the workforce” in anticipation of weakening business activities, according to the survey.

The real estate, leasing, insurance, construction, manufacturing and retail sectors will see the most noticeable drops in business activity in the coming three-month period.

Sports, creation, scientific and technology service businesses will undergo the largest workforce cuts, the survey has found.

The highest number of layoffs — some 11,000 — will come in the manufacturing sector, followed by some 1,400 in the construction sector, shows the survey results.

Fewer enterprises are set to expand their workforce in the January-March period. The retail sector plans to hire 3,200 more workers, the largest number of all the sectors surveyed.

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