Posted By Safe System After reading peoples posts the question is.. Is there a lack of jobs .. or is there just a lack of jobs in the area you live? I am seeing so many advertised it confuses me slightly the amount of people here still looking, despite, what looks like, good experience.... maybe the jobs are being made up..

Posted By Bob Youel agencies 'trawl'for CV's so be careful - contact them before you apply to get an answer to the obvious question - its not surprising that many do not want to answer such a question! In their defence if they do not have CV's they cannot help job applicants so be aware of what you are doing best of luck in the job hunting and has he tried bartering as its the in-thing?

Posted By clairel I've noticed no reduction in the number of jobs advertised. I think the jobs are still there for the right candidates.

Posted By Anthony Edwards I recently contact an agency advertising in SHP and was told that the majority of jobs advertised in the magazine would be filled prior to it being delivered.

Posted By stephen d clarke Hi, I would agree with the last posting regarding agencies and closing dates for a particular job. In my experience of the jobs I have applied for with agencies over the last few months only Proactive Personnel and Red Recruitment had closing dates. All the rest including Hays, SRG, Whitehall, thasp, Atom, TAC Europe, SCI Recruitment, CK Science, Shirley Parsons, Totaljobs, CV Library, Prince Personnel, JAM Recruitment, Web Recruit, Convert Recruitment, HSE Recruitment, Principal People, Executive Fixtures, AndersElite, TAS Opportunities and Scantec Personnel NO CLOSING DATES were they all real jobs? - JAM Recruitment did give me an interview. Many of the agency jobs are advertised, the same job, for months and months. I think there is a lot of bad practice here never mind data protection issues. I had one agency request photocopies of my birth certificate etc with no actual job on offer. Steve

Posted By Simo 79 I would agree, the job market, particularly the contract market is poor at the moment. Personally I'm approaching the end of my current contract (Mayish) and am starting to become a little concerned at the prospect of getting another contract. It seems some companies are now only offering pro-rata salaries for 6 - 9 month jobs without even considering cost of digs, travel food etc. Fingers crossed that things will pick up with the start of the new financial year next month. Simo

Posted By paul sykes There are just no jobs and if there are you need a Diploma for a Cert advertised job the quality of persons putting in for the jobs is that much higher eg all the construction guys with Diplomas are putting in for the general jobs as they have no work in there industry good luck to all in these hard times i consider myself one of the lucky few got a job 2 months ago after being off for over 6 months and when times pick up will i leave my new job no chance i owe them big time saved me my livlihood ATB Paul

Posted By Helen Gotts All, As a Recruitment Consultant myself, I have been reading this with interest. Firstly, I see on a number of forums and similar places that people are under the impression that Consultants are paid purely on the number of new CVs they add to the database. I can categorically state that this is not true (certainly not in my company anyway!). Whilst there has been a reduction in the number of vacancies available, unfortunately this has happened at the same time as a massive increase in the number of people looking for work, plus clients are now being more stringent in their requirements as they know there is a bigger pool to choose from. I am being bombarded with calls from irrelevant people (ie not Safety professionals) who are desperate for work and whilst I respect their situation and initiative, I am fully aware of the fact that this is time consuming and preventing me from getting to the good applicants straight away. My advice is to always pick up the phone and talk to a recruitment consultant rather than apply online and wait for a response. I agree that Recruitment Consultants need to be more diligent in terms of closing job adverts and sympathise with your frustration at applying for things that have been filled / offered internally etc. I specialise in H&S recruitment for the engineering sector and the reason you are probably seeing a lot of advertisements out there is because a lot of companies that previously specialised in banking, IT etc are now trying to open the door to the engineering sector as this is still one that is relatively buoyant. They are also offering cheaper prices to clients (very attractive in the current climate) but not necessarily providing the best quality service to clients or candidates alike.

Posted By Chris Black 2 things there are a lot of ads out their, however you will find agencies touting jobs they have not been contracted to fill. I had 6 agencies try to put me forward for the job I have just been appointed to, none of them were contacted by my new employer. You will find the same jobs advertised again and again by different agencies making it look busy in the market, the truth is that it is very quiet. The worst recruiter for advertising jobs without being contracted could, alledgedly, be one that rhymes with "ham". You will also find that jobs are advertised and then pulled at this time of year when previously agreed budgets are being trimmed at the last minute, with a bit of luck some of these may open up again later in the year

Posted By Brett Day I recieved feedback from an agency on a role, initially site based, but then covering sites across the south east and reporting to the UK safety manger. The company initially was asking for TechIOSH, construction cert, at least 5 years experience in the construction industry preferably with some CDM experience. My CV and 2 others were sent, from what I gather we were all around the same level. The agency was told that we were all 'To senior' for the role - or as the agency put it, they wanted all this but much more cheaply. They have now been asked to find some one that will do the job for 20K. She noted that more companies seem to be doing this at the moment.

Posted By CFT Probably not Neil; having so said it is easy to take advantage of a 'buyers' market, and offer a job on a far lesser salary scale knowing full well that someone will likely take it due to wanting a job at any rate of salary. If unemployment drops significantly and times improve employers will likely realise that to attract the right candidate salary levels will need to be of 'interest.' Right now however 'any' salary level will interest someone and whilst I can speculate that this may come back to haunt them should anything go wrong it won't stop this epidemic of lower salaries being offered in many many sectors. Interesting to note that when certain industries announced they would be cutting salaries by 20% an idea was born for the 21st century along with redundancies, increased work loads etc, it just starts gently somewhat subliminally then full blast until it becomes the 'norm' and any vacancies advertised will attract a response from the masses. I was recently requested to sit on an interview panel for a 'health & safety advisor' the responsibility lever was vast as indeed was the geographical area, it simply could not be done properly but they still felt it was a good position; 28k was therefore offered and CMIOSH was considered to be the target market or possibly 'Grad' with diploma or NVQ and some substantial experience; suffice to say they received over 100 applications, this was whittled down to 15 interviews (way to many IMO) and the final 3 were basically inseparable; all had enjoyed 40k+ positions but were either redundant or facing the possible prospect; in each case all were asked if they would accept if offered the position and they all confirmed a resounding yes! It also included a company car which increased personal taxation to ridiculous levels. It is difficult for certain. CFT