EY has announced plans to hire an additional 3,700 staff by next June, in a move which the firm says is driven by growing demand for its services from clients and expectations that the economy could be bouncing back more quickly than expected.

The firm says recruitment will take place at all levels, from school leaver to partner, and across all four of its assurance, tax, transactions and advisory service lines, with positions available from Inverness to London. It is looking to hire 2,400 experienced professionals, plus around 1,300 student places (700 graduates, 500 undergraduates, 150 school leavers).

EY does not release publish specific figures for experienced hires by service line, but says this is broadly proportionate with each service line's growth. It says opportunities in its advisory services are 'particularly strong', especially in areas such as cyber-security, fast-growth markets and regulatory change, as well as a high demand for advisory services to the financial services industry.

A survey by research company Universum, released last week, ranked EY second only to Google in an index of the world's most appealing employers, while the firm took the top slot worldwide for professional services. In the UK EY was also voted the number one firm for professional services and eighth overall (up from twelfth last year) in the poll, which is based on the opinions of nearly 94,000 business students from the world's top academic institutions in the largest 12 economies by GDP.

EY currently has 11,000 staff in the UK, including 550 partners, and earned £1.63bn in fee income last year, up by 11% on 2011.