The survey, which polled 600 employers in the public, private and non-profit sectors, showed 60% of employers plan to increase their permanent workforce over the next three months and 5% plan to reduce headcounts. However, the balance between employers planning to increase and decrease permanent employees has dropped by five percentage points.
Over the next 4-12 months, 53% of employers plan to increase permanent headcount compared with 2% who are planning decreases.
The temporary recruitment outlook remains stable, with 40% planning to increase headcount compared with 8% planning to decrease, which is similar to results in May.
Employer optimism
REC chief executive Kevin Green said the survey shows employers are "more optimistic", with 400,000 more people in employment than a year ago.
"Recovering from the recession may be taking longer than many would like but progress on jobs continues to outperform the rest of the economy," Green said.
The REC survey mirrors this month's ONS job figures, which showed continued growth in the jobs market; unemployment fell by 5,000 in the three months to January 2013 compared to the previous three months.
Speaking to HR magazine last week, jobs site Reed managing director Tom Lovell said the results of recent job surveys point to a recovery.
"It comes down to confidence among employers and confidence among employees. It's important we continue to see jobs advertised if we're going to continue heading in the right direction," Lovell said.
