Monster Employment Index Europe Shows Modest Growth in OnlineRecruitment Activity in May

Highlights:

• Fuelled by slight gains in the UK and Germany, the Monster Employment Index Europe rose one point to 166 in May, as online job availability across the EU held largely steady from April
• Year–on–year, the Index was up 16 percent, compared to 24 percent in the previous month, indicating slowing growth in European recruiting activity
• Opportunities declined the most in the banking, finance and insurance; construction and extraction; and IT sectors
• By contrast, healthcare and social work saw a large increase, fuelled by strong demand in Germany, Italy and the UK
• Demand rose for service and sales; and craft and related workers, while plant and machine operators registered a decline, both month–to–month and year–on–year

"EU online job availability was little changed in May and while the long–term trend is still pointing upwards, it´s clear that companies are beginning to take a more measured approach to hiring due to concerns about slower economic growth" said Hugo Sellert, Head of Economic Research, Monster Worldwide. "Still, with unemployment rates across Europe at or near cyclical lows, the labour market remains highly competitive from an employer´s point of view. In fact, sectors as diverse as engineering, healthcare and tourism have actually stepped up their recruiting efforts in recent months."

Monster Employment Index Europe findings for 2008 are as follows:

Findings for key countries tracked by the European Index during 2008 are as follows:

For the full version of the European Index report and reports for Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and UK visit: http://corporate.monster.com/Press_Room/MEI_EU.asp

The Monster Employment Index Europe 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.