The Monster Employment Index UK increased by two points in October to reach a level of 161, indicating unexpected resilience in the jobs market following the recent financial turmoil.

The upturn halted a fourth month decline and the Index is once again showing an annual increase after registering the first year-on-year decline on record in September. Online job availability rose most in the healthcare, social work; and education, training and library sectors and there were moderate increases in offerings in banking, finance and insurance; and engineering. In contrast, there was a marked decline in demand for workers in environment, architecture and urbanism; construction and extraction; and HR.

The Index showed modest growth to rebound from a four month decline. Online job availability in the UK is now one percent higher than year-earlier levels.

· Demand surged in the healthcare and education sectors. Moderate increases were also seen in finance and engineering

· By contrast, hiring fell sharply in the architecture, construction and HR sectors

· Among occupational groups, demand for craft and related workers jumped while offerings for service workers and shop and market sales workers dropped

· Regionally, Wales saw the highest monthly and annual growth rates. Northern Ireland fell back the most