Global recruitment is still decreasing but a growing number of companies are planning to hire in the coming quarter.

Following a report yesterday from the Office for National Statistics showing unemployment in the UK has reached 2.2 million, a survey by international recruitment firm Antal revealed 47% of companies across the world are still hiring - compared with 54% at the start of the year. But those intending to hire over the next three months has risen from 43% to 44%.

The survey of 4,217 employers in 32 countries shows 45% of businesses in the UK are still recruiting and 51% expect to recruit in the coming quarter. And the situation is much worse for recruitment in other European countries such as Switzerland, where 20% of employers are currently taking on new staff. At the other end of the scale, in Malta, 72% are recruiting.

Tony Goodwin, global CEO of Antal, said: "While the percentage of organisations hiring has gone down, it has not plummeted in the way the economic statistics and many pundits might have led us to believe.

"The period of panic and unilluminated gloom does finally seem to be behind us. Recovery may still be a good way off, but it could be we are better prepared to pave the way to it than we have been for some time."