NEW jobs continued being created during the summer holidays, a snapshot of business activity has revealed. Although sales and exports eased while staff were away, new positions were still being created.
The Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey, which polls attitudes every three months, showed another rise in the number of firms looking to take workers on.
About 79 per cent of businesses recruited between July and September, up 34 per cent on the previous quarter.
However, overall growth showed signs of slowing.
Chamber chief executive Ian Kelly said: "These remain reasonably good figures, but not as good as in recent quarters.
"It therefore remains important for the Government to continue nurturing growth and for the Bank of England not to increase interest rates any time soon."
Up to now, more and more businesses had this year said they expected to increase their workforces.
There was a very slight drop this time around, with 60 per cent of firms expecting to boost staff size in the next three months, down 1 per cent.
However, the number expecting to cut jobs was also down three points to 4 per cent.
Training remains an issue, as it has done for some time.
Earlier this week Iain Elliott, new chief executive of apprentice group HETA, said providers needed to up their game as existing staff near retirement.
Businesses seem to agree, with 49 per cent saying finding senior staff and skilled manual workers was an issue.
In terms of sales and orders, the figures suggest a plateau has been reached.
About a third of companies reported an increase in domestic sales, 11 per cent down on the last quarter.
There were 14 per cent reporting a decrease, up 9 per cent.
That could be partly down to the summer holidays, with fewer staff in the office, although the number posting an increase is also lower than the same period last year.
Plant and machinery investment fell back by nine points from the second quarter's figure.
About 34 per cent of businesses plan to invest in equipment in the next three months.
The overall outlook seems to be a continuing but slowing improvement for many businesses, with 63 per cent expecting profitability to improve in the next year.
A total of 89 per cent also expect their turnover to increase.
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