Jobless figures continue to rise

Latest figures released by the Office for National Statistics indicate that the UKís jobless total rose for a second row in a month in December with the total number of people out of work rising to 1.41 million in the last three months of 2004, even though 90,000 more people were in employment.

According to Carole Fossey, Managing Director of beRecruitment Limited the discrepancy between rising unemployment and record numbers of work can be explained by the increasing numbers of the working population.

We still have to keep these figures in perspective. Whilst the jobless figures rose to 4.7% from 4.6% the rate still remains the lowest in the world, particularly when compared against our European counterparts where Germany has 12.1% unemployment, Spain 10.4% and France 9.7%.

Certainly, we are still experiencing a very buoyant recruitment market and have not seen an sign of the economy slowing down even though thatís what the indications may lead us to believe.

Throughout 2004, the number of people in work increased to 28.52 million - the highest figure since records began in 1971.

beRecruitment is a successful Manchester-based recruitment agency offering tailor made recruitment for the following industries: recruitment, HR, sales, IT, marketing, telemarketing, call centres, customer services, secretarial[Carole] , administration, accounts and Construction . It has recently launched beTemps, specialising in recruiting temporary staff.