“Annual growth in Industrial production remain a key contributor to overall growth in online recruitment across the Continent, leading for the last six months in the Index as sector employers have continued to ramp up their efforts,” commented Alan Townsend, Vice President of Sales Readiness and Business Operations for Monster Europe. “While government cuts continue to impact the arts and public sectors, private sector opportunities are increasingly diversified, with strengthening growth trends in creative areas like marketing, an encouraging sign.”

July 2011 Index Highlights:

- The Monster Employment Index Europe demonstrates 21 percent annual growth in July

- Industrial production and related sectors complete a sixth consecutive month at the top with the strongest growth of all industries

- Telecommunication remains a strong performer in July, moving to fourth position by measure of annual growth in the Index

- Public sector and the arts remain in annual decline although the arts experiences a slight easing on its rate of decline

- Growth takes place across all EU countries monitored by the Index in July, with Germany continuing to lead with 36 percent

Industry Year-over-year Trends: 22 of the 24 industry sectors monitored by the Index in July exhibited positive annual growth trends.

- Transport, post and logistics (up 43 percent) was the top growth sector in July and remained the star performer in the Index, closely followed by Production, manufacturing, maintenance and repair (up 41 percent)

- Engineering (up 40 percent) and Telecommunication (up 35 percent) remained the top performers of the professional services sector with Telecommunication registering a notable improvement on last month’s 29 percent

- Banking, Finance, Insurance (up two percent) swung back into a state of positive annual growth, albeit at a modest rate. Legal (up three percent) also registered a positive annual growth rate, reflecting moderate improvement across primarily white-collar job functions in finance and professional services

- Public sector, defence, community (down six percent) registered the steepest annual decline in July’s Index, continuing to exhibit the impact of ongoing government cuts to this sector

- Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Leisure (down four percent) was the only private-sector industry to exhibit ongoing decline, although the rate of decline has eased slightly from last month

Occupation Year-over-year Trends: All nine occupational groups monitored by the Index in July continued to exhibit positive annual growth.

- Craft and related trades workers (up 48 percent) maintained its lead in annual growth for the third consecutive month, with a growth rate closer to the Index-wide average in July than in prior months, suggesting other occupations are contributing more to the overall upward direction of the Index

- Managers (up 12 percent) gained some growth momentum in July, while Professionals (up 20 percent) continued to grow at a near-average pace

- Service and sales workers (up 22 percent) edged up among occupational groups, claiming third place among groups by measure of annual growth