Employers remain cautious but fewer plan to cut staff amid an improvement in business confidence from recent lows, according to a quarterly survey today.

Employer sentiment improved by 0.2 percentage points to a net 19.8% of employers planning to increase permanent staff numbers for the three months ended June, according to recruitment agency Hudson.

Unemployment looks set to jump – a new survey shows 24% of New Zealand employers are looking to shed permanent staff in the next three months.

The latest Hudson Report, Hiring Expectations, has returned the worst result since the survey began in 1999.

It shows a net negative effect of 11.3% for the April to June quarter, which means that 11.3% more employers are planning to reduce staffing levels during that period rather than increase them.

This represents a substantial drop of 19.2% from the previous Hudson survey.