Econintersect: Global online employment agency Monster Worldwide (NYSE:MWW) reports a steepening decline in online recruitment in Europe for September. The Monster Employment Index Europe showed its second consecutive monthly year-over-year decline.
The index is based on online job opportunities monitored across 24 European countries. The European Monster Employment Index also provides country-specific data measuring online job demand in seven of those countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The y-o-y decline for September was 2%, a larger decline than reported for August (-1%). The last decline prior to August came more than two years ago in April 2010.
For the seven countries reported individually, France (-11%) and the Netherlands (-16%) had by far the most severe declines. And three of the seven countries actually showed slight gains.
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From the September 2012 Monster Index press release:
Highlights:
- Year-over-year the Monster Employment Index Europe exhibits a slightly steeper rate of reduction in online recruitment in September compared to August, with demand down two percent
- Germany continues to decelerate but remains in the positive growth territory of three percent in September and is closely followed by Belgium (up two percent) and the UK (up one percent)
- All other regions monitored by the Index report decline with France and Netherlands recording double-digit reduction in annual growth
- Environment, architecture and urbanism (up 22 percent) notes the greatest annual growth for the fifth consecutive month and significantly outperforms all other industries while Construction (down six percent) sees the greatest decline
Elementary occupations (down 15 percent) exhibits significant reductions for the fourth consecutive month and places bottom of the Index
The Monster Employment Index Europe is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career web sites and online job listings across Europe. The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.
“As the ongoing crisis of the Eurozone continues to undermine business confidence, the impact to employer recruitment activity remains clear as the Index registers an overall decline in annual online recruitment for the second consecutive month,” commented Alan Townsend, Senior Vice President of Sales Readiness and Business Operations for Monster Europe. “Following the latest OECD economic assessment showing key Eurozone countries entering recession, we would expect online hiring to remain tempered. Despite this, it is encouraging to see critical categories for future economic growth like Engineering and IT growing year-over-year.”
Source:
Monster Worldwide Employment Index (Press Release, 05 October 2012)