The Monster Employment Index Europe rose by 26 points in February, the largest monthly increase since the Index started in 2005, as online job opportunities grew across the European Union. The UK saw the largest growth of 32 points while the Netherlands saw the smallest recovery, of 13 points.

Year-on-year the Index had its strongest growth in more than two years, increasing by 36 points or 28 percent. The Monster Employment Index Europe is a monthly analysis of millions of online job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of corporate career sites and job boards across Europe, including Monster.

Most of the monitored sectors showed solid growth, with Healthcare, social work registering the sharpest increase. In contrast, the Legal sector saw decline for the second month in a row as well as from a year earlier. Year-on-year, hospitality and tourism; and production, manufacturing, maintenance, repair showed the highest rate of increase, while banking, finance, insurance; and real estate registered the sharpest declines. Online job availability increased for all the occupational groups, unlike January, which saw a sharp seasonal decline overall. Demand grew the most for Service workers and shop and market sales workers.

“The sharp increase in European online job availability in February shows not only that the downturn in January was only a seasonal dip, but also suggests a surprise strengthening in underlying demand, offering encouraging evidence that employers across Europe remain in expansion mode,” said Andrea Bertone, Regional Director, Monster Worldwide Europe. “Indeed, although there are indications of a looming economic slowdown, the EU job market has continued to benefit from sustained high business confidence and record low unemployment.”