A North/South divide in hiring confidence among UK employers, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

The survey reveals a line running from the Humber in the North-East to the Bristol Channel in the South-West — above the line, employees are predicting negative hiring intentions of -2%, but below that line, employees have broadly positive hiring intentions of +6%

Overall, the National Outlook has fallen for the first time in 11 quarters with a national seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook of +2 for Q4, compared to a Net Employment Outlook of +3% in Q3 2011.

Finance and business services registered a +6% Outlook, after a strong performance in the past two quarters, +10% in Q3 2011 and +16% in Q2 2011, while utilities is now the most positive sector, with employers in the water, gas and electricity industries reporting hiring intentions of +10%.

Manpower UK managing director, Mark Cahill, says: “Six months ago it looked like the banks were going to lead the way out of recession and could even have filled the hole created by the slowdown in the public sector.

“The finance sector was hiring like nobody’s business; it was consistently the most optimistic sector post-recession but this has now fallen away quite dramatically over the summer. We’ve seen almost 50,000 jobs go in banking. Make no mistake, there are still jobs to be had in areas like retail banking, but in other areas of banking — there has been a real pull back and this is having an impact on the jobs market as a whole.”