The global economic uncertainty is discouraging companies on the Chinese mainland from growing their headcount in the first quarter but employers in the IT and telecommunication sector have shown the strongest intention to recruit in the period, according to a survey by Hudson Recruitment.

Hudson said that 66 percent of the companies planned to increase their staff strength between January and March, down from 72 percent in the same period a year earlier.

However, 85 percent of the IT and telecommunication employers expressed the strongest intention to hire more staff in the quarter, up from 75 percent in the previous three months, the survey said.

"The growth may be attributed to the fact that many international IT corporations are opening up research and development centers in the mainland, boosting the recruitment intention within the sector" said Lily Bi, general manager with Hudson Shanghai, yesterday.

The survey, which interviewed 650 executives from mainland companies in all sectors, said that the hiring plans of employers in banking and financial services were the most affected as only 56 percent of the senior managers indicated they were looking for employees in the quarter, a sharp drop from 73 percent in the fourth quarter last year.

Hudson attributed the drop in hiring intention to the looming economic uncertainty globally.

The survey also found that 11 percent of respondents in the manufacturing sector said they planned to slash staff numbers instead of hiring, indicating that manufacturers have the highest intention to downsize staff strength compared to other sectors.