In a release today, after the quarterly survey, it was seen that employers remained alert, whereas there were fewer plans to cut staff which resulted in improving business confidence from recent lows.

Recruitment Agency Hudson said that there was an improvement seen in the employers' sentiments by 0.2 percentage points to a net 19.8 percent of employers planning to increase permanent staff members.

Compared to the low that was hit in March 2009, improvement has been seen in the sentiments by 31 percentage points. According to the Treasury forecast, the official unemployment status has gone up to 7.3 percent.

"Employers are holding their line this quarter, which is a pleasing sign of stability for the slowly emerging economic recovery", said Hudson NZ General Manager Marc Burrage.

He also mentioned that the business confidence remained stable for the few months of 2010, and the results of December quarter of 2009 showed that the economy was growing.

For the third successive quarter, positive sentiments were reported by all the industries.