Monster's survey found online hiring in the public sector is up 18%, IT (up 12%) and engineering (up 13%) also continue to demonstrate robust annual growth.
But arts, entertainment, sports and leisure registers the largest annual declines in recruitment activity.
The Monster Employment Index Europe is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career web sites and online job listings across Europe. The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.
Nine of the 21 industry sectors monitored by the Index exhibited annual growth in April and the HR sector was one, showing growth of 4% in its online recruitment since this time in 2011.
The Midlands (up 15%) continued to lead all regions by measure of annual growth, supported by increased online recruitment activity across engineering and sales.
London (down 3%) charted an annual decline in online job opportunities, falling into negative territory for the first time since December 2009.
For the fourth consecutive month Wales (down 7%) noted further reductions in online recruitment compared to a year ago.
"The Midlands continues to exhibit the most growth in the UK, which is very positive news for people in the area," said Julian Acquari, MD of Monster UK & Ireland, "On the other side of the coin, as the UK economy returns to recession it's not surprising to see London experience a slight decline in online job opportunities. However it is not all doom and gloom for those living in the Capital - or indeed the rest of the UK. There is growth across a wide range of sectors including IT, engineering and hospitality. Job seekers just need to be smart in their approach and tailor their job hunt to the industries that are surviving the downturn."
Across Europe. The Monster Employment Index demonstrated a year-over-year growth of six percent in April, compared to the eight percent registered in March. Despite registering further deceleration compared to previous months, Germany continued to exhibit the strongest growth year-over-year of all regions, at 19%. Italy and the UK both registered improved growth of one percent compared to year-ago figures while the Netherlands continued to chart the greatest annual reduction (down 20%) for the fourth consecutive month. Agriculture, fishing, forestry led all industries by measure of annual growth in April while Public sector, defence, community (down 7%) continued to track the greatest reduction in online recruitment year-over-year but improved slightly compared to March. Of the professional services segment, Environment, architecture, urbanism, IT and Engineering remain among the stronger trending industries despite registering muted growth rates compared to trends typically seen at this time of the year.
The Monster Employment Index Europe provides monthly insight into online job posting activity across the European Union. Launched in June 2005 with data from December 2004, the Index is based on a review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large, representative selection of corporate career sites and job boards, including Monster. The Monster Employment Index's underlying data is validated for accuracy by Research America, Inc. - an independent, third-party auditing firm - to ensure that measured national online job recruitment activity is within a margin of error of +/- 1.05%.
