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CEOs have shed last year’s “bunker mentality,” as one chief describes it, and are much more likely today to be hiring than firing. Roughly 40 percent of chiefs in the U.S. and Europe say they will add to their workforce through 2011, with about 45 percent planning to hold head count steady. CEOs elsewhere in the world are even more upbeat, with 65 percent planning to add workers and 19 percent saying they’ll leave employment numbers flat.

While there’s little disagreement that job creation is essential for a sustainable recovery, CEOs disagree about where those jobs will come from. U.S. chief executives predict that small businesses and the government — in roughly equal measure — will drive job creation through 2011. “Directly or indirectly, I think jobs are going to come increasingly from the government,” says Verifone Systems Inc. (PAY) CEO Douglas G. Bergeron. “People are asking for more government, not less.” That said, Bergeron argues that small business jobs have more economic impact. “There’s a tremendous multiplier effect that just doesn’t exist with jobs created by government,” he explains. Outside the U.S., just 10 percent or fewer business leaders believe governments will generate most new jobs.

CEOs everywhere agree that the past year has taught them how to do more with less. “We have found ways to reduce fixed costs and increase productivity with fewer workers,” says Leggett & Platt Inc. (LEG) CEO David Haffner. “That puts the company on firmer ground, which is good for the employees we have now.”