Looking to beef up your finance staff this quarter? You may see a bit more ease in the job market, but the hiring crunch has hardly disappeared. That's what a recent survey by staffing firm Robert Half International Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif. shows.

RHI polled 1,400 chief financial officers from companies with more than 20 employees about their hiring plans for the first quarter of 2000. About half the companies are small businesses.

A net 7% of CFOs said they'll hire additional staff. (The net percentage equals the percentage planning decreases minus those planning increases.) That's lower than the year-ago quarter, when a net 13% said they would add new workers. It's also lower than the 1999 fourth quarter, when a net 10% said they'd do so. But Jon Zion, a district director for Robert Half, says 7% is still quite healthy, and the leveling off may reflect a normal slowdown after the yearend push, when many companies add staff in anticipation of the new year.

The retail sector led the pack, with a net 16% of those CFOs saying they'll hire, compared with a net 8% at financial-services companies and 6% at manufacturing companies. Why the need for so many more bean counters and other finance pros? Tax filings, financial-systems conversions or upgrades, and e-commerce, says Robert Half.