Companies looking to attract summer interns might want to work on job descriptions with a little spice of life — variety.

“The variety of the internship is usually what attracts the best talent from the student side,” says Robert Nealon, metro market manager for Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE: RHI). “The big thing for any student looking for internships is, your goal is to do as much work as possible.”

Nealon, who is based in Robert Half’s office in Braintree, Mass., oversees the company’s Syracuse office at 500 Plum St. Robert Half is a specialized staffing firm based in Menlo Park, Calif.

In addition to using variety to attract top-quality interns, Nealon recommends finding a unique role that an intern can fill. That role will vary depending on the type of business, but it shouldn’t be something simple like making copies or coffee.

“A lot of interns really look for some type of opportunity that has something unique,” Nealon says. “The ability to do something that’s not standard or cookie-cutter across the industry is the number-one thing we hear from students.”

There will be more competition for top-level interns this year as the job market improves, according to the results of a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). The 2012 Internship & Co-op Survey by NACE found that employers plan to increase internship hires by 8.5 percent over last year.

NACE conducted the survey from Nov. 11, 2011, to Jan. 13, 2012. The organization sent surveys to 952 of its employer members and received responses from 280 organizations.

The survey results showing increased interest in intern hiring aren’t surprising, according to Nealon. Many of Robert Half’s clients are returning their staffing levels to normal after employment cratered during the recession, he says. And when staffing levels go up, so does interest in interns, he adds.

“Intern use is really a big driver for clients to do a lot of projects,” he says. “Most of it is supplemental to help the staff with different projects.”

Many firms are trying to attract students to internships by offering pay, according to Nealon. He pointed to the NASE survey, which found that 99.6 percent of internships are paid.

That is up from 2011, when 97.1 percent of internships were paid, according to the survey. And this year, just 4.2 percent of survey respondents said unpaid positions are at least part of their internship hires, down from 7.1 percent last year.

“The number-one thing [for students] certainly isn’t the compensation side of it, but it’s an extra benefit,” Nealon says. “Not only does a paid internship give you the experience, but it gives you some help with some of the costs associated with commuting to the internship.”

Nealon recommends embracing interns as part of the company once they are on board. Interns value being involved in meetings and seeing how their work fits into a business, he says.

Keeping interns satisfied can pay off for a company, Nealon says. Students often look to turn their internships into permanent work with employers, and businesses can benefit from the chance to hire a former intern, he says.

“It’s certainly a cost-effective way for employers to get a head start on the hiring process in general,” he says. “It’s a great way to get a sneak peak of somebody coming out of school, to get a look at their work ethic.”   

The Syracuse metropolitan statistical area (MSA) has the third-best employment outlook in the country for the second quarter of 2012, according to a recently released survey.

A net 21 percent of employers in Syracuse plan to hire in the second quarter, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which was released March 13. Manpower, a division of the Milwaukee–based ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), issues the survey quarterly.

Manpower calculates a region’s net employment outlook by subtracting the percentage of employers who anticipate slashing staff from the percentage who expect to increase hiring. 

In Syracuse, 23 percent of employers plan to increase staff levels in the second quarter of 2012, while just 2 percent plan to decrease staffing, according to the survey. Another 71 percent of area employers predict their companies will maintain current employment levels, and the remaining 4 percent of survey respondents said they were unsure of their hiring plans.

“We’re seeing [employers] talk to us that maybe in the last two years, they’ve had projects that were on hold or they downsized,” says Tom Winner, regional director at Manpower, which provides a range of temporary and permanent staffing services. “Now people are saying, ‘Call us, we’re ready to talk to you.’”

Winner, who is based in Vestal, directs a Manpower region that stretches from northern Pennsylvania through Vermont. The region includes Central New York and a Syracuse office in Suite 125 at 2 Clinton Square.

Strong employment sectors in Syracuse include health care, business and professional services like call centers, and the manufacturing of durable goods, Winner says. The region has received a boost from strong economic-development organizations, he adds.

“We’ve been involved with CenterState CEO,” he says. “I think they’re doing an excellent job advocating economic development.”

Other Syracuse employment sectors that the survey indicated have strong job prospects are construction, transportation and utilities, wholesale and retail trade, information, education and health services, and leisure and hospitality. 

Not all fields have improving hiring prospects. The survey indicates hiring in manufacturing of non-durable goods, financial activities, and government will likely be unchanged in the second quarter in Syracuse.

Syracuse’s second-quarter survey results are stronger than those from the first quarter of this year or the second quarter of 2011. 

In the first quarter of 2012, a net 7 percent of employers reported plans to boost hiring — 13 percent of firms planned to increase staff levels, 6 percent planned cuts, 73 percent expected to maintain current levels, and 8 percent did not know what they would do.

In 2011’s second quarter, the net employment outlook notched 10 percent. That’s because 16 percent of employers expected to increase staff levels, 6 percent planned to decrease staffing, 76 percent expected staff levels to remain the same, and 2 percent were uncertain about their plans.

Syracuse’s employment outlook in the 2012 second-quarter survey trailed only two MSAs that were tied for first place — the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley MSA in South Carolina and the Knoxville MSA in Tennessee. 

The net employment outlooks in those areas registered 24 percent. Among Greenville-Mauldin-Easley survey respondents, 26 percent of employers anticipated increasing staff levels. Only 2 percent planned to decrease their number of employees, and 67 percent expected to maintain their current staffing levels. The other 5 percent said they did not know their plans.

In Knoxville, 25 percent of employers planned staff increases, 1 percent expected cuts, and 73 percent planned to maintain their current employment levels. The final 1 percent said they did not know what they will do.

Businesses are more optimistic about hiring across the country, Winner says. Nationwide, a seasonally adjusted net 10 percent of employers plan to hire in the second quarter of 2012. That’s up from 9 percent during the first quarter of 2012 and higher than the second quarter of 2011, when the net employment outlook was 8 percent.

Nationally, 18 percent of employers indicated they plan to increase staff levels in the second quarter, and 6 percent expected to cut their payrolls. That yields a non-seasonally adjusted net 12 percent of employers planning to hire. Once seasonal adjustments are applied, a net 10 percent of employers plan to hire, according to Manpower.

Among remaining survey respondents, 72 percent expected no change in hiring plans and 4 percent were undecided.

“I think people have a more positive outlook, and they’re making some investments that they didn’t make six months or a year ago,” Winner says. “A lot of things have to do with attitude.”

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey includes a sample of more than 18,000 employers in the top 100 MSAs in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. So, the Binghamton and Utica–Rome MSAs were not included. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.61 percent at a confidence index of 

90 percent.