Home improvement retailer Home Depot said it is hiring about 60,000 seasonal workers for a series of spring sales, a level that a spokeswoman said was comparable to last year's.

Home Depot in December forecast a sales increase of between 2 percent and 2.5 percent in the 12 months ending January 2012.

Spring is the busiest season for home improvement retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe's Cos Inc.

Home improvement retailers have faced consumers holding off on expensive renovations as they wait for the U.S. economy to recover more robustly.

Last month, Lowe's said it was laying off 1,700 middle managers across the United States.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Home improvement