Confidence among candidates and employers continues to increase but a full recovery remains some way off, according to international recruiter Hays.

Today’s figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the number of people unemployed in the UK dropped by 9,000 in the quarter to September, leaving total unemployment almost unchanged at 2.4m, while the unemployment rate was also unaltered at 7.7%.

A spokesperson from Hays told Recruiter: “Overall, the UK job market continues to show signs of recovery, and confidence from both professionals and employers is rising but there is still some way to go until we see a full recovery. Activity is largely focused on recruiting to replace, rather than recruiting for new roles.

“They have extremely high expectations of candidates and look for professionals to meet all the competencies laid out in the job specification because they can’t afford to make any hiring mistakes.

“Succession planning is starting to come to the fore so organisations can ensure the next generation of leaders. Managing and developing talent is even more of a focus because employers want to keep their staff engaged and prevent them from looking elsewhere.”

Steven Kirkpatrick, managing director at Adecco, says he is not surprised by the figures. “While employers’ confidence remains conservative, we are optimistic, having experienced a steady uptake in recruitment activity across permanent, temporary and part-time roles nationally. In particular, the recruitment trend of ’temp to perm’ is still a popular choice for employers who wish to take a ’try before you buy’ approach to permanent resources.”

Neil Jones, managing director of hyphen, outsourcing recruiters for Aviva, Nokia and Logica, says the figures reflect current trends in procurement. “What we are seeing within procurement reflects the ONS unemployment statistics.

“Across the broad spectrum of sectors that hyphen’s client base covers, job vacancies have increased by more than 30% year-on-year. Demand has been consistent since Q2 2010, when we saw a surge in candidates, which has been well matched with our clients’ requirements. In particular, we are seeing increased activity within the financial services sectors.”

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), warns that public sector cuts are already having an adverse effect on the job prospects of women. “The latest headline employment, unemployment and earnings growth figures show continued improvement in labour market conditions.

“However, there are signs that cuts in public spending are already having an adverse impact on job prospects for women, with the unemployment rate for women now at 7% – higher than at any point since the start of the jobs recession in 2008.

“The quarterly rise in employment is due mainly to more men entering self-employment, but while this contributed to a fall of 40,000 in the number of unemployed men, the number of unemployed women increased by 31,000.

“The public sector, which has a relatively high concentration of female workers, is also the only sector to record an increase in redundancies in the latest quarter. Whatever the overall rate of job creation in the economy in the coming months, the negative impact on employment of fiscal austerity is likely to continue to hit women much harder than men.”