Latest monthly recruitment totals published by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation with KPMG show a significant slowdown in the rate of both temporary and permanent appointments in September 2011.

As concerns continue to rise about the continued economic uncertainty, particularly in the Eurozone and America, and growth remains flat this is perhaps no great surprise.

For employees facing the loss of their jobs in the public sector as well as the private sector, for new graduates and school leavers looking for their first jobs and for everyone struggling to deal with austerity measures and rising energy and food prices the statistics can only add to the pressure they are under.

The survey revealed that September had seen the slowest increases in permanent placements and temporary billings since August 2009, the weakest rise in job vacancies for almost two years, that pay pressures remain muted and there had been a stronger improvement in candidate availability.

Growth of short-term staff availability was at a seven-month high and the fear is that it will not be long before job availability ceases to expand, at however slow a rate, and begins to contract.

REC chief executive Kevin Green commented that the survey results emphasised employers' diminishing confidence in the economic future. He added that this was exacerbated by weak consumer confidence, leading to people staying in their current role rather than changing jobs.

Although new jobs continue to be created in the private sector they are nowhere near the level to compensate for the loss of public sector jobs and also are affecting young job seekers disproportionately.

He called for a National Insurance holiday as a means of encouraging small and medium-sized companies to take on young people and for the Bank of England to resume quantitative easing to help kick start the economy.

Another REC survey provided a ray of optimism for those in the professional recruitment industry, however. It found that 93 per cent of clients are satisfied or very satisfied with the performance of the recruitment agencies they use and only three per cent of employers are dissatisfied.

This suggests that job seekers should not give up hope, but seek to improve the odds in their favour by using the services of a professional recruitment agency.

To get a foot in the door it is worth being open to both contract and temporary work, both of which tend to be most widely available via the agencies, and to starting off in an administrative, back office, PA or a clerical role regardless of their qualifications.

Good specialist agencies tend to have established, long term relations with the employers who are their clients as well as the ability to provide advice and guidance to candidates on their presentation of themselves and their CVs, all of which can help job seekers in their search.

Copyright ? 2011 Alison Withers