As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praises the UK government for its “bold and wide-ranging” response in containing the economic downturn, commercial recruiters are seeing signs of an improvement in hiring intentions.

Leah Clifford, consultant at TopType Personnel, told Recruiter: “I still think it is quiet. There has been a slight pick-up in private sector roles. I feel like we have a lot more in a pipeline. When we are talking to clients, there is a lot more positivity in the marketplace.

“Clients are saying’ nothing is going to happen yet, but call me back later this month because there might be something in the pipeline’. The intention is there but the confidence is not.”

Kirsty Miall, director at Attic Recruitment, adds: “The more that we read there are green shoots, people will have confidence in the market place. We have found that a lot of our executive search clients are staring to hire at the very senior level and that filters down to us.”