The HR jobs market has once again grown “pretty substantially” following a long period of decline during the recession, a study of online vacancies has revealed.
The Monster Employment Index, out today, has shown that the number of HR jobs advertised online has risen by 33% (17 points) year-on-year, from 52 in January 2009 – the worst reading recorded for HR last year – to 69 in January 2010, on a scale where 100 is the baseline.
The index showed that HR vacancies have dipped two points compared to December’s reading of 71, but analysts put this down to the Christmas hiring season being typically slow.
Jonathon Der, a senior economist at Monster Worldwide, told Personnel Today the HR market was set to continue recovering from the recession. “Year-on-year, we are seeing pretty substantial growth in the HR market. HR was one of the first sectors to realise the downturn, it was one of the first sectors to cut back on hiring. Now in HR there’s some kind of stability.”
He added: “Usually there is a lot of sluggishness in general in January, which would explain the slight drop in HR month-on-month, but the drop is so minor compared to last year, this would suggest the sector is flattening out.”
However, Der warned the sector was only just emerging from rock-bottom. “There is still a long way to go,” he said.
Elsewhere, the arts, entertainment, sports and leisure sector performed the strongest in January.
The deepest declines in this month’s index were in the research and development, hospitality and tourism, and legal sectors.
The index reading for all sectors last month stood at 111 – a nine-point decline compared to the previous month, but identical to January 2009’s overall reading.
The Monster Employment Index figures come as a survey found the number of graduate vacancies in 2009 actually fell by 8.9%, compared to the 24.9% predicted.
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