UK Online Recruitment Shows Seasonal Decline in January according to the Monster Employment Index

— Online Job Opportunities Decrease in All UK Regions —

London, February 12, 2008 – Online hiring in the UK dropped considerably in January, as the Monster Employment Index dipped by 14 points, following two months of solid growth. The Monster Employment Index UK 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.co.uk.

The Index fell to a level of 160 points in January, due in part to sizeable decreases in online job availability in the banking, finance, insurance; and legal sectors. The Index also showed a fall in demand for the majority of occupational groups, with the exception of craft and related workers; and skilled agricultural and fishery workers. Overall, the Index is up 39 points, or 32 percent, compared to January 2007.

“The fall in online job opportunities in the UK in January was primarily seasonal – in fact, a similar trend was seen in January in each of the past three years,” said Julian Acquari, managing director of Monster UK and Ireland. “Although there are signs that employers in select industries such as finance and accounting have scaled back on their recruiting following the turmoil in global credit markets, the underlying demand for labour remained strong in the UK job market at the onset of the new year.”