The demand for permanent staff rose in seven out of eight categories in January, according to the NTC Economics monthly Report on Jobs survey of 600 UK Recruitment and Employment Confederation recruitment consultancies.
The strongest rate of growth was for the accounting/financial sector, jumping more than four points since last year, followed closely by engineering/construction and executive/professional.
Demand for permanent secretarial/clerical staff also showed a slight improvement (1.1 points) from last January, followed by nursing/medical/care with one point. Requirements for IT and computing staff registered the most minor change at 0.1 points.
Demand for blue-collar workers showed the weakest trend, dropping by six points from last year.
The requirement for hotel and catering staff also showed a significant decrease, falling by almost six points from 2005.