UK employers’ confidence in job prospects rose slightly in the final month of 2012, according to the JobsOutlook report from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC).

The REC’s report, based on a survey of 200 UK employers, saw the barometer level hit 29, with positive numbers indicating jobs growth, having stood lower than this in every month of 2012 other than March (also 29).

Overall, 56% and 34% respectively of respondents expected to slightly increase permanent and temporary staffing over the coming quarter (January to March 2013), with 1% apiece saying it would ‘increase greatly’.

While one in 10 firms said temp staffing would decline, only 3% overall thought it would be a significant increase.

Split down into industry, all sectors expected both a short-term (next three months) and long-term (across the rest of the year) rise in temp staffing demand.

For permanent roles, engineering & technical, industrial and office professionals were anticipated to drop in both timeframes, while education and hospitality were likely to stutter more subtly, with all other sectors seeing growth.