"The worst of the recession is clearly behind us," Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO said in a conference call.  "We now have the confidence to be optimistic about our future."

Total worldwide employee count dropped slightly between 2nd and 3rd quarters this year, but Schmidt indicated that this was likely to increase again with the upturn.

Google's share price dropped around 1% during the day but increased as much as 3% in after-hours trading.