CHICAGO (Bloomberg) - Caterpillar Inc. said it expects to return a portion of the company's laid-off employees to jobs as demand increases in the coming months, even as other idled workers are told they will not be coming back.

About 550 US employees have returned or will return to work before the end of 2010, including support, management and production employees, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said in a statement on Monday. Caterpillar also began telling about 2,500 other US laid-off workers that they will not get their jobs back and will be offered a separation package.

Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, cut about 18,700 full-time jobs and about the same amount of temporary workers since December 2008 as demand declined. The company last week posted third-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates and issued a full-year forecast that exceeded the highest prediction.

"We are pleased that signs of recovery in the global economy allow us to return a selected group of laid off employees to work," CEO Jim Owens said in the statement. "But it's important to remember that we are not close to the record-breaking demand we experienced from 2004 through 2008."

Sales may be $32 billion to $33 billion this year and rise as much as 25 percent in 2010 from the midpoint of those figures, Caterpillar said.

The company last week also said Douglas Oberhelman, a group president responsible for the engine and gas turbine operations, will succeed Mr. Owens as CEO next year.

Caterpillar fell 56 cents to $57.04 at 1.24 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading.