LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - British companies expect to keep cutting jobs in the next three months, but the pace of job-shedding appears to be easing in some sectors, a survey showed on Tuesday. A quarterly survey by recruitment firm Manpower showed a seasonally adjusted net balance of -6 percent of firms planned to cut jobs between July and September -- matching the 17-year record low hit in the second quarter.
The survey will reinforce analysts' expectations for unemployment to keep rising for the rest of this year and to hit 3 million by 2010.
However, the weak headline number masked signs of improvement in some sectors. The utilities and community and social sectors plan to hire staff in the next three months and hiring intentions were flat in the agriculture sector.
Companies in the construction, financial and business services, mining and utilities sectors were less reluctant to take on workers than in the previous quarter.
Hotels and retailers, however, were their most reluctant to hire staff since 1992. And hiring intentions in all the sectors were worse than a year ago.
"While it is too early to say if the worst is behind us in the UK, it is promising to see a slower rate of decline in employer hiring confidence now emerge," said Mark Cahill, managing director of Manpower UK. (Reporting by Fiona Shaikh; editing by Stephen Nisbet)