Recruitment agencies would not have welcomed the news that the unemployment rate for the final quarter of 2011 was 8.4%, the highest level since 1995.

The actual number of people out of work rose by 48,000 over the last 3 months and is now set at 2.67m unemployed. However the unemployment rate was the slowest increase since last June, which hopefully shows some signs of improvement.

Young people still seem to be suffering the most with 1.06m 16 – 24 year olds out of work which increased by 22,000.

Some good news came in the form that the number of people working actually rose by 60,000 to 29.13m, there is slight stipulation with this fact and that is the number of part time jobs actually rose by 71,000 and so engulfs this 60,000 figure. The main reason for this would be that single mothers have been forced back into the labour market.

Overall the job market looks stagnate, with not too much change between the quarters. We really need to see some kind of recruitment drive to bolster the economy but it is obvious that we are not quite there with so many uncertainties.