Employers look to start recruiting again

21 January 2010

The vast majority of employers are no longer considering redundancies and many are planning to take staff on, a new survey has revealed.

The latest JobsOutlook survey from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found that 94 per cent of respondents are not preparing for any further job losses.

But one in five predicted that they would be increasing the number of permanent staff they employ over the next year.

Roger Tweedy, the REC's director of research, said: "This is positive news for job-seekers and confirms the stabilisation of the labour market and which overtime will result in better jobs figures.

"The road to full employment will be slow but the trend of increasing employer confidence and a return to hiring is now established. We need to avoid any kind of employment legislation that will add to employers costs and so hinder job opportunities."

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics reported a surprise drop in the number of people unemployed.

For the three months to November, the total out of work stood at 2.46 million, a fall of 7,000 on the figure for the previous three-month period.

The drop was largely accounted for by a rise in those taking part-time jobs, up by 99,000.

Commenting on the figures, Katja Hall, director for employment policy at the CBI, urged the government not to risk the flexibility of the UK's labour market with unnecessary employment legislation.

Ms Hall said: "The unemployment figures are better than expected. One major factor behind this is the flexibility of the UK labour market, which allows companies and their staff to take action quickly to protect jobs and create new ones to meet upturns in demand."

"That is why we are urging ministers to think very carefully about regulations to come into effect next year which will add to the cost of using temporary agency workers. Employment agencies help over a million job-seekers find work and allow companies to create jobs quickly and efficiently. Ministers must not undermine this important means of job creation."