The Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s (REC’s) September JobsOutlook has revealed that employers are being more cautious about their hiring intentions until the end of the year.

The survey’s Jobs Barometer, which tracks employer confidence, has fallen to a six-month low as unease and uncertainty about the impact of public sector cuts continues to cast a shadow over the jobs market. This in turn has started to dampen expectations in possible jobs growth into next year.

Ninety five per cent of employers say they anticipate their permanent workforce will either grow or remain in the same in the next three months – a drop of four points on last month, while their expectations in the increased or current levels of use of temporary workers has gone down one point.

However, JobsOutlook shows long-term plans for their use of temporary workers has fallen six points, with 76% saying they will take on more or keep their levels the same. For permanent staff hire over the next 12 months, 92% plan to either to increase their headcount or keep it static, a change of three points from last month.

Roger Tweedy (pictured), the REC’s director of research, said: “The results again show how elusive confidence is among employers, though the findings also show a resurgence of consumer confidence, according to the latest NOP data.

“One other encouraging trend is the continue upswing in the number of temporary workers which Labour Market Statistics show have now exceeded 1.5m for the first time. This again demonstrates the importance which employers put on having a flexible workforce to undertake essential tasks, especially frontline public sector roles.”