Although there was a modest increase in online job vacancies during April, the number of advertised HR roles continued to drop.

The Monster Employment Index UK shows opportunities for HR workers has also fallen by 5% since March as demand eased for the ninth time in 10 months. Despite a slight increase in job vacancies in February this year, companies across Britain still appear to be scaling back on human resources.

The index rose overall by 2% since March but still shows 37% fewer job vacancies compared with April 2008. Monster reports the slight rise was driven by an increase in opportunities in the healthcare, social work, education, training and library, management and consulting, and legal sectors - online job demand in the healthcare and social work sectors rose by 13%, while in the education, training and library sectors the figure was 9%. Online job demand for managers and professionals rose by 2% in April.

Hugo Sellert, head of economic research at Monster Worldwide, said: "Although demand for workers remains significantly lower than last year, signs of stabilisation are appearing across sectors of the economy. Meanwhile, there continues to be strong demand for education and healthcare workers to fill existing vacancies."