Toyota Will Add Engineers in Japan

Toyota plans to hire 585 engineers next year, up 8.1 percent from 541 a year before. In blue-collar technical operations, which include skilled factory workers, hiring will surge 62 percent to 1,300 employees.

And in a sign of Toyota's more confident financial footing, about 300 of those workers will be contract workers given full-time positions. That compares with 100 contract workers who gained full-time positions in the current fiscal year.

Toyota has about 3,400 contract workers, who work for fixed periods with no guarantee of long-term employment. The automaker's corps of temporary workers peaked in 2005 at 11,600.

The world's largest automaker is beefing up personnel amid forecasts for record profits and revenues in the current fiscal year. That cushion is expected to propel Toyota through a period of growth, undergirded by a new modular vehicle platform.