Now's the time to get a new job!

Job opportunities are up 11% since last year!

So what’s your New Year’s Resolution? For me, it’s to clean up my language as I will soon have a pair of young ears picking up on every curse (my first baby is due in January). But for a bunch of my friends, 2011 is the year of the career – they aren’t happy with their jobs, the money or the challenges, and so want to turn over a fresh leaf by moving careers.

And according to one new piece of research, their timing is spot on.

Job opportunities at a record high

Reed.co.uk, a commercial job website, has confirmed that its Reed Job Index, which tracks employer demand for new UK staff, rose in November to its highest ever level.

The number of job opportunities rose 4% compared to October, and is now 11% higher than last December.

So what’s behind the rise – and where can you find these job opportunities?

The sectors looking for staff

The Reed Job Index works by tracking the number of job opportunities against the baseline of 100 set in December of 2009. So industries scoring in excess of 100 have seen a rise in demand over the last year, and are the most keen for new staff.

Below are the ten sectors with the highest score on the Reed Job Index.

It’s clearly been a hell of a year for those working in logistics, with job opportunities jumping by more than 50% in the space of 12 months.

But what about the sectors where things have got worse over the past year? Here are the ten sectors which have seen the sharpest contraction in job opportunities.

No great surprise that the public sector has seen job opportunities fall off a cliff with the Government’s cuts programmes, with associated sectors like social care and medicine experiencing the knock-on effect.

Opportunities up but salaries down

Interestingly, despite the fact that job opportunities have risen overall, the salary levels for new jobs have fallen, with an index reading of 96 compared to last December’s 100. In fact things were even worse in October, when the index stood at 94.

It’s worth noting that the job sector which has seen the biggest growth in job opportunities, Transport & Logistics, has actually seen the salaries on offer fall by 4% over the year. Indeed, a handful of the sectors boasting the most jobs (General Insurance, Legal, Marketing & PR and IT & Telecoms) have seen salaries decline or freeze. So there may be more job opportunities, but the money on offer from these jobs is getting worse.

Extra competition

However, before you hand in your notice and start filling out applications for jobs driving lorries from Land’s End to John O’Groats, remember that the competition for jobs is likely to be extremely competitive in 2011.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics have confirmed that unemployment increased unexpectedly in the three months to October by 35,000, taking the total number out of work to 2.5 million.

So if you’re going to get that dream job in 2011, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd. Here’s 3 things you’ll need to do

Put together the perfect CV

The CV is your chance to make a first impression on a potential employer, so it’s important to get it right. They won’t want a 10 page epic on your career to date, but equally they’ll want a bit more detail than merely the various job titles you’ve held.

I’d advise having a read of How to write the perfect CV.

Do your homework

Should your CV impress sufficiently, you’ll then be invited to an interview. This won’t just be an opportunity for you to sell yourself, but also to show off that you know a bit about the firm as well. You’ll then be able to talk specifically about how your skills and experience will fit in, which should impress the employer as you’ll be showing how keen and interested in the job you are.

Clean up your online skeletons!

Increasingly employers will look at your online profile when considering you for a job. So if you have any incriminating photos on Facebook or tweets on Twitter that are likely to offend, it’s a good idea to get rid of them. You can actually use the internet to your advantage by building a profile on sites like LinkedIn which can only help, particularly if you manage to get recommendations from former employers.

For more on how to stand out from the crowd, have a read of Be the one who gets that job!

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