Job vacancies suffer steep fall in December

At the start of what will almost certainly be a year of rising unemployment, the number of job vacancies is falling back "steeply", according to one of the country's leading recruitment agencies. The warning, from Reed, comes as the respected Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development predicts unemployment would reach 2.7 million in 2011 – a 17-year high. Last month, the headline total went back above the 2.5 million mark, and youth unemployment is close to 1 million. As many economists begin to doubt whether the private sector will be able to generate the volume and quality of jobs to compensate for the 330,000 to be lost in the public sector over the next few years, the research from Reed reveals that "job opportunities across the country fell steeply last month... The recent surge in demand from private sector employers reversed down." ... read more

Independent
Jan 11