News that unemployment has reached a 14 year high shouldn’t deter jobseekers, Simply Jobs boss says.
Ian Partington, managing director of Simply Jobs Boards, said that, while the employment market is inevitably suffering because of the recession, there is still optimism for those out of work.
”We are going through very tough times at present and anyone out there looking for work is well aware of the difficulties they face,’ he said.
”But there are still plenty of firms still recruiting and posts out there that need filling.
”While other recruiters have seen their vacancies fall, we have managed to buck the trend and still have tens of thousands of jobs advertised on our sites.
”There will inevitably be more people applying for each post and greater competition, but the key for jobseekers is to be professional and make sure your CV and interview skills are such that you stand out from the crowd.”
The number of people out of work rose by 210,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to July, official figures from the Office of National Statistics showed.
Vacancies were also down 12,000 to 434,000 on the quarter and in the suffering manufacturing sector, the number of jobs has fallen to 2.65 million in the three months to July – the lowest since comparable ONS records began in 1978.
The recession’s impact on young people was underlined by jobless totals among 16-24-year-olds reaching 947,000 – the highest level since records began in 1992.
One in five under 24s is currently actively looking for work.
At the same time, the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance rose by 24,400 to 1.61 million in August – the highest since Labour took power in 1997 and the 18th monthly rise in a row.
The contrasting impact of recession on the public and private sectors was also shown by the 13,000 rise in public sector employees to 6.04 million in the quarter to June.
This contrasts with a 230,000 fall in private sector workers to 22.85 million over the same period, the ONS said.
For the public sector, average annual pay growth including bonuses was 3.4 per cent in July – almost three times the 1.2 per cent seen in the private sector and double the 1.7 per cent growth overall.
