Further falls in online recruitment activity

After February's welcome but "seasonally-elevated" rise, Monster's UK and European employment indices both fell again in March, reflecting a further decline in online recruitment activity.

The UK index fell by seven points to 110 - a year-on-year decline of 41% - largely as a result of fewer job opportunities in the legal, marketing/PR/media and healthcare/social work sectors.  Demand fell across most occupational groups, with skilled agricultural workers, professionals and craft & related workers among the hardest-hit.

While Wales was the only UK region to register an increase, this wasn't enough to prevent it from joining all other UK regions in experiencing a year-on-year decline.  The biggest regional monthly falls occurred in Scotland (down fourteen points to 100) and the Midlands (down eight points to 102).  Scotland is now 49% down year-on-year - the biggest annual decline of any UK region.

"Overall, online recruitment in the UK has fallen once again," said Hugo Sellert, head of economic research at Monster Worldwide.  "There is cause for optimism, however, in some sectors.  Hiring of education and production workers rose in March, and healthcare has shown encouraging annual growth."

Monster's European index also fell by three points to 112 in March, although here the picture was a little more mixed.  While Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden joined the UK in negative territory, Belgium, France and Italy all recorded positive growth in demand.

Belgium enjoyed a second consecutive monthly rise, and its year-on-year market contraction of 18% is barely half the European average of 34%.  Italy also saw a second successive monthly rise and continues to fare relatively well compared to the rest of Europe, although its near-term outlook is still described as "bleak".

Industry sectors reporting the biggest declines included marketing/PR/media, environment, engineering and automotive.

"We are seeing stagnation in the European online recruitment market," added Hugo.  "In this environment the flexibility of different European countries is affecting how redundancy and recruitment processes unfold.  At this stage, the only commonality across the EU is the relatively sustained health of public-driven sectors."