More than half (55 per cent) of leisure and hospitality businesses are planning to create new job opportunities during 2012, according to new research published by Barclays.

The Barclays Job Creation Survey 2012 also found the sector was "more receptive" to taking on former public sector employees compared with other UK industries.

Barclays surveyed 670 executives from UK businesses of all sizes and across a number of different sectors on attitudes towards job creation, as well as economic confidence.

The research showed 89 per cent of leisure businesses believe government initiatives to create job opportunities have failed to achieve much to date.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of industry businesses believe there will also be a shortfall of private sector opportunities against the anticipated number of job losses in the public sector.

Barclays head of hospitality and leisure Mike Saul said: "As an industry which has many SMEs within it, it is good to see smaller companies, in particular, more confident about creating new positions than they were last year.

"The leisure industry is a significant contributor to the economy both in terms of jobs and revenue, and the increased confidence around investing in jobs in order to grow sales, rather than waiting for sales to increase before hiring people, is really promising."

Details: www.barclays.com