Employer Confidence Continues to Improve

The highlights of this most recent report are:

10% of employers predict an increase in permanent employee hiring in the next 3 months. That's up by 5% on last month.

Just under 1 in 6 employers anticipate permanent staff levels to rise over the next 12 months compared to 1 in 8 per last month.

1 in 20 employers expect to take on more temporary workers in the next three months, whilst nearly 3/4 expect their level of agency staff to remain the same over the next year.

A surprising 4 out of 10 employers said the recession had had no impact on their workforce.

Last month 24% of employers made staff redundant, the figure is now down to 22%.

Just 3% of employers are cutting hours or slashing pay in response to the continuation of the recession.

REC director of research Roger Tweedy says: "It is encouraging that employer confidence is slowly but surely starting to manifest itself in terms of hiring intentions. However, it is very early days and a number of employers are still making redundancies or cutting working hours. Regular data on how employers are reacting to subtle changes in the jobs market is essential and will help recruiters to plan ahead over the coming months."

As Roger Tweedy says it's early days yet but optimism is definitely returning. Let's hope the Pre-Budget Report, next Wednesday does yet more to increase employer confidence.

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