Among industry sectors, hospitality and tourism registered the strongest rate of growth in March. Online job offers also increased within banking, finance and insurance for the second consecutive month. In contrast, healthcare, social work and personal care saw the greatest decline for online jobs over the last month.
After a three-month downward trend, online job availability for service workers and shop and market sales workers increased, partially due to a greater number of job vacancies within the surging hospitality and tourism industry.
Among the regions, Scotland saw the greatest rise in online recruitment activity, rebounding from a dip in February. Demand for workers in Scotland was highest in healthcare, social work and personal care and marketing, PR, media and sales. All other UK regions also registered gains.
"The Index’s strong surge in March was driven by seasonal recruitment activity in several industry sectors,” commented Alan Townsend, Chief Operating Officer, Monster UK & Ireland. “The hospitality and tourism industry is beginning to staff up again in preparation for spring and summer holiday travel. Likewise, the increase in retail sales roles supports healthy figures from the ONS, following the peak and trough that we tend to see through Christmas and the New Year. As the Index findings show, demand for workers was broadly based across industries, occupations and geographies, providing strong evidence for a positive hiring outlook ahead.”
