WASHINGTON - The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) completed a survey of its largest members and found that 67 percent of respondents intend to increase their workforce this year. On average, the companies responding to the survey plan to in-crease their number of employees by 4.7 percent.

According to NAW, 58 of the nation's largest wholesaler-distributors with collective annual sales of $177 billion participated in the survey, which was conducted in early March.

"These new hires are in response to very healthy sales gains posted by wholesaler-distributors in January and February," said Dirk Van Dongen, president of NAW. "The survey participants see strong sales increases ahead and need more people to handle the increase in business they are experiencing."