The recession has caused employee morale to fall in many organisations but most employers don’t have a clue how bad the problem is, new Hudson research suggests.

The research findings, part of the Hudson 20:20 Series report “Talent Tightrope: Managing the Workplace through the Downturn,” reveal that employers consistently think their employees’ sentiment is twice as good as it really is.

Employers are moving away from shedding staff and toward holding staffing levels steady, according to the latest Hudson Report: Hiring Expectations.

After moving deeply into the negative last quarter, national employer sentiment is now positive for the first time in two years: a net 0.5% of employers intend to increase permanent staff levels during the July to September period.

Employers intending to reduce their permanent staff levels decreased from 23.7% to 15.3% this quarter.

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.

Bosses aren’t hiring but they may soon start firing, according to a report by recruitment company Hudson.

The Hudson Report, a nationwide survey of employers' hiring intentions for the first half of next year, shows one in six planning to shed staff during that period.

16.5% of businesses say they plan to reduce the size of their workforce, a 43% increase since the last survey six months ago.

Meanwhile, fewer businesses (24.3%, down from 38.3%) are planning to expand their workforce.