A quarter of estate agents in the UK intend to recruit staff in the next 12 months, providing a welcome boost for employment prospects, new research shows.

The study from WiggyWam, the all-in-one property platform, reveals that 84% of agents are busier thanks to a surge in demand from homebuyers, driven in part by the stamp duty holiday.

Of these agents, 39% describe their past year as being  ‘extremely’ busy compared to the level of trade expected during a ‘normal’ 12 months.

Some 28% of respondents cite the SDLT holiday extension as a key influence on their hiring decisions over the next year, making it the most influential market force in the eyes of UK estate agents.

The survey of almost 10,000 estate agents also found that optimism created by the general uplift in the market, the end of lockdown, the rollout of vaccines, and the introduction of 95% government-backed mortgages, are all having a positive impact on the market.

A separate study by the human resources body, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), has found that employment prospects are generally starting to improve across a number of sectors.

The sectors with the strongest hiring intentions include healthcare, finance and insurance, education and ICT.

“Our findings suggest that unemployment may be close to peak and may even undershoot official forecasts, especially given the reported fall in the supply of overseas workers,” said Gerwyn Davies from the CIPD, which carried out the survey with recruitment firm Adecco.