Online Recruitment Levels Increase in the UK for Fourth Consecutive Month, According to Monster Employment Index

November 2012 Index Highlights:

• The Monster Employment Index UK reports an annual increase of one percent, continuing the positive growth trend initiated in August
• Public sector, defence and community continues to lead all industry sectors by measure of annual growth in November
• Banking, finance and insurance is the weakest performing sector year-over-year, extending the negative trend to a 22^nd consecutive month
• Annual online hiring for Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers rises at the fastest rate among all occupation groups in November
• Of the regions measured by the Index, the Midlands notes the strongest year-over-year uptick with the region noting its most robust growth rate in six months

The Monster Employment Index Europe is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career web sites and online job listings across Europe. The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.

“November’s Index reports increased hiring for almost half of all industries as we enter into the fourth consecutive month of overall annual growth,” said Julian Acquari, Managing Director of Monster UK & Ireland. “Engineering continues to be a power-house of hiring growth among industry sectors, and healthcare also charted strong annual growth in November.” 

Industry Year-over-year Trends: 10 of the 21 industry sectors monitored by the Index exhibited annual growth in November.

• In line with the positive growth trend initiated in February, Public sector, defence and community (up 42 percent) led all industries in terms of annual growth with opportunities growing for Service and sales workers in particular

• Engineering (up 16 percent) was the second strongest performing industry sector and has noted year-over-year growth since August 2010, with stronger demand for both Professionals as well as Technicians and associate professionals

• Healthcare (up 11 percent) continues to note strong gains year-over-year as it enters its fourth month of positive growth

• With the 22nd month of annual decline, Banking, finance and insurance (down 13 percent) was the weakest performing industry sector,  with softening demand for both Professionals as well as Technicians and associate professionals

Occupation Year-over-year Trends: Five of the nine occupational groups monitored by the Index charted annual growth in November.

• With stronger  annual demand noted consistently since October 2011, Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (up 10 percent) was the top performing occupational group in November

• Increases in online hiring activity was also seen for Clerical support workers (up six percent), with a rise in demand in the Administrative and organisation as well as the Sales sectors

• In contrast, Service and sales workers (down seven percent) reported a tenth month of downturn in opportunities and saw the greatest decline in annual hiring activity

Geographic year-over-year Trends: Five of the nine UK regions registered annual gains in online recruitment in November. 

• Midlands (up 10 percent) noted the highest rate of annual growth in November with significant increases seen in the Accounting, audit and taxes; Education, training and library; Healthcare and social work; and Sales sectors 
• North England (up seven percent) registered its highest rate of annual growth in eleven months, with increasing opportunities primarily seen in the Engineering and Sales sectors
• For the fourth consecutive month, East Anglia (down 13 percent) experienced the steepest reduction by measure of annual online hiring with the greatest rate of decline exhibited in 2013 to date, the most notable slip in demand was observed in the Healthcare and social work as well as in the IT and Sales sectors

International Trends

The Monster Employment Index Europe reported a fourth consecutive month of annual decline, recording a four percent decrease in online hiring in November. Belgium and the United Kingdom were the only two regions to report annual growth, both up one percent, while all other regions reported reduced online recruitment activity compared to year-ago levels. Germany continued to decelerate, recording an annual decline of five percent from a positive growth rate of two percent in October.   Environment, architecture, urbanism recorded a seventh consecutive month as the top performing industry year-over-year, while Transport, post, logistics reported the sharpest reductions for the second consecutive month. Managers (up five percent) saw the greatest increase in demand year-over-year of all occupations. Elementary occupations (down 16 percent) continued to report the weakest rates of annual growth for the sixth consecutive month.

By Industry

By Occupation

By Region

Monster Employment Index data for December 2012 will be released on January 8, 2013.