New research conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has found that the majority of employers plan to recruit extra staff this summer.
The findings add weight to other indicators suggesting that the economic recovery is gathering pace.
The second quarterly monitor of employment intentions, 'HR Trends and Indicators', which will be officially published later this month, questioned 2,000 employers in all sectors and regions of the UK.
It was found that 81 per cent of employers plan to hire staff this summer, 58 per cent of which will result in an increase in employment levels.
The vast majority of employers (96 per cent) of those recruiting will be taking on full-time staff.
Meanwhile 40 per cent of respondents expect to be employing more staff by the summer of 2005 against just 17 per cent expecting to employ fewer. This positive balance of 23 per cent is up from 19 per cent in the spring quarter survey.
"The economic recovery is gathering pace and the labour market is getting ever tighter as more organisations look to recruit and fewer plan to make redundancies," Dr John Philpott, chief economist at CIPD, commented.
"Despite this there is still no sign of an imminent surge in wage pressure. But with private sector recruitment increasing at a time of low unemployment, employers will have to remain on their guard to ensure that wage costs are kept under control. Failure to do so could result in higher interest rates." |
