Improved confidence in the economic recovery is prompting some companies to start to take on more staff.
A survey by Hudson Recruitment of more than 1200 employers shows almost 20% plan to hire more permanent staff in the next three months - almost 9% more than last quarter.
The number of employers looking to cut staff has fallen - down to about 8% - from just over 11% three months ago.
Hudson says businesses appear to be putting the hard times behind them.
Executive general manager Marc Burrage says temporary and contracting employment intentions are still positive, but they are easing. However, there is a significant increase in permanent hiring intentions.
Mr Burrage says it is encouraging to see that all sectors are showing an improvement.
He says the Government sector is one of the most cautious sectors, but is still 4.5% up on last quarter's results.
He expects confidence to continue to climb in coming quarters.
IT sector leads survey
The improvement is being led by the IT industry, but even the manufacturing and financial sectors are showing signs of recovery.
However, about 8% of employers say they expect to make further redundancies.
About 150,000 people are currently unemployed, and some economists expect the dole queue to keep growing for another six months.
