REC: Employer confidence has surged

The latest research from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has revealed that confidence among UK employers has surged.

The group’s April JobsOutlook revealed that the month demonstrated the highest employer confidence levels reported so far this year.

Indeed, 96 per cent of the people surveyed revealed that they predicted their permanent workforce to either remain static of show growth within the next three months.

This is a rise of two per cent on the number of employers who felt this way in the previous month.

Get our essential weekday HR news and updates. URL This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Work Email Keep up with the latest in HR... This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_form This field is hidden when viewing the form Optin_date Year Month Day This field is hidden when viewing the form Batch_Newsletter

Meanwhile, 86 per cent of respondents revealed they expected their use of workers from agencies to also grow or stay the same.

Roger Tweedy, the REC’s director of research, said: “This [research] fits with the feedback from professional recruiters on the ground, who are reporting increased hiring activity in most sectors.”

However, new figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed that the employment rate for the three months to February 2010 was 72.1 per cent – a level that has not been lower since the three months to October 1996.

Posted by Hayley Edwards