January's Reed Job Index is 9% higher than January last year. The Reed Job Index is 23% above the level of December 2009 when the Index's baseline was set.
But salaries for new jobs fell back across the board in January.
In spite of the overall rise in new opportunities, job demand dropped back across several sectors, from banking to energy. Consumer-facing sectors saw the largest falls, with hospitality and catering jobs dropping compared with December.
But rising demand for new workers in other job sectors balanced the falls with marketing & PR, estate agency, retail, sales, security, charity and media, all experienced rising demand.
Regionally, the North East and East Midlands showed January's biggest jobs growth, while demand in Northern Ireland recovered from its dip in December, boosting the Index as a whole.
Martin Warnes, MD of reed.co.uk, said: "The first Reed Job Index of 2012 shows a jobs market that has grown 1% on December and 9% on the previous year with the majority of sectors showing growth on 2011.
"Year-on-year growth in new jobs of 9%for January is encouraging and underlines the determination of UK businesses to ride out the economic storm."
