More jobs in January but salaries fall

by Simon Ward on 01 February 2012  |  3 comments
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Reed's monthly Job Index sees small increase in number of new jobs although the salaries they're paying are falling.

There were 9% more new jobs in January this year than in January 2011, according to the latest edition of job website Reed’s Job Index.

However, salaries for new jobs fell by one index point compared to December and were generally flat across the whole of 2011.

Looking at December to January, the most new jobs were created in the marketing/PR, estate agency, retail , sales, security, charity and media sectors. There was also a leap in new jobs in the public sector. Meanwhile, the hospitality and catering, health, leisure/tourism, energy and banking sectors all saw falls.

The most new jobs were created in Northern Ireland, followed by the north east of England, which will be good news for an area that’s been hard hit by the economic downturn, and the East Midlands.

There were fewer new jobs in Wales, Scotland and the north west of England.

No sectors have seen consistent monthly growth in new jobs over the past year. But the engineering, automotive, security, energy, estate agency and IT/telecoms sectors have seen the biggest average growth over the course of 2011.

By contrast, the number of new jobs in the banking, retail and training sectors has fallen the most, illustrating the struggles the first two industries are facing at the moment, albeit for very different reasons.

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