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Organisations across the UK are increasingly willing to sign up additional finance professionals as the economy shows signs of recovery, with London being the place most likely to pick up a new job.

According to the latest Robert Half CFO Confidence Index 17% of UK CFOs said their companies would be looking to hire permanent accounting and finance staff over the next six months, a 16% year on year rise, while two thirds (67%) of CFOs intend to maintain their current accounting and finance staff levels in the next six months. At the same point last year, 84% of finance leaders were pessimistic about their companies' prospects.

CFOs based in London were the most optimistic, with nearly a third (29%) planning to resume hiring in the next half year while 63% of finance chiefs will be looking to attract talent by boosting salaries.  Rising workloads were cited as the primary reason for increasing personnel levels (65%), with business growth (55%) as another driver.

"Our index shows that finance leaders anticipate an eventual upturn in the UK market and are planning their hiring strategies accordingly,” said Phil Sheridan, Managing Director of Robert Half UK. “However, our findings also show that half of CFOs are concerned about losing their top performers to other job opportunities.

“It is, therefore, even more important that workers feel valued by employers and are given access to training, skills development and career progression within their firms. Salary progression is also being taken seriously, with our findings showing that nearly two thirds (63%) of finance chiefs will be looking to attract talent by boosting salaries."

There will also be a strong freelance and contractor market with demand for interim workers remaining strong. Some 63% of finance directors plan to use the same number of interims as last year while 17% plan to increase the number of interim workers at their company, up from the 13% six months ago. "While the outlook for the UK job market is improving, some employers clearly remain cautious, and want to keep their organisations lean and efficient,” noted Sheridan. “Employing temporary workers is a cost-effective solution for managing fluctuating workloads and accessing skilled talent."

According to the survey, the majority of finance professionals intending to recruit over the next six months will be filling new graduate roles (17%) and more junior positions (27%), which is good news for those about to set out on their careers. But that assumes that younger people want to join the profession after the events of the past two years. Two thirds of finance leaders believe that the profession has been damaged in the past year, with CFOs saying that the public now  view those employed in finance as untrustworthy (46%) or very  untrustworthy (20%).