While employers' fall hiring plans are not expected to provide dramatic gains in job opportunities, there is a low risk for layoffs or job losses, according to a new employment survey by Bloomberg BNA.

Still, hiring prospects for nonmanagement workers are much improved from a few years ago, and news of layoffs and staffing reductions are at their lowest levels since the recession in late 2007.

Hiring plans have remained mostly modest since early 2011, and there is little to suggest any sustained trend for all employee groups. As such, over the past eight quarters, the percentage of respondents reporting hiring plans has remained within 5 percent for both production and service workers at 21 percent to 26 percent and technical and professional employees at 28 percent to 33 percent. For office and clerical staff, the range has been slightly at 12 percent to 19 percent.