A survey carried out by Reed Recruitment has found that Northern Irish companies are most confidence of growth over the next quarter.

The report found that 20% more businesses in the region believe they would be recruiting extra staff as compared to last quarter.

On a the UK-wide basis 5% more companies plan an increase over the period, according to the 1,400 organisations canvassed for the Reed Recruitment Index.

When polled on their recruitment plans for the coming quarter, the percentage of organisations predicting they will recruit to grow increased from 32% in the first quarter of 2002 to 37% for the first quarter of 2003.

Organisations in most geographical regions in the UK predict a rise in growth over the coming quarter, with the biggest increases in Wales and Northern Ireland – a rise of 20% over last quarter, with 53 and 57% of organisations planning to recruit to grow respectively. Only organisations in East Anglia and Midlands predict a fall in growth levels this year.

Alongside those companies planning to expand, 52% of organisations plan to recruit to maintain staff levels, the same percentage as last year. Eight per cent plan to downsize, fewer than the 10% plan to make redundancies than at this time last year.

Planned growth is highest in large organisations, with 43% of those employing more than 1000 staff planning to expand in the coming quarter (an increase of eight points over last year), compared to 36% for small organisations with under 100 staff. Expansion plans have increased most in the Services field (up six points on last year) and in charitable organisations (up 13 points on last year).

Sales staff are still in most demand (with 17% of organisations listing them as most in demand) followed by technical/engineering staff (15%).

James Reed, Chief Executive of the recruitment group, said: "2002 was a difficult year for many UK businesses and the job market. It is encouraging to see an improvement, with more organisations now planning to recruit in the coming year, but overall demand still remains below pre-September 11 levels.

"It would be wrong to say the slump in some parts of the employment market has reached an end, but - to borrow Churchill's memorable phrase - we may now be reaching the end of the beginning."

Reed, the UK's leading recruitment group, offers a combination of on and offline services with over 250 branches and 2000 specialist consultants across the UK and Ireland fully integrated with reed.co.uk.

(GMcG)