London, December 30: A new report has warned that there is only one job opportunity for every 23 people in Britain, where the economy is 'heading inexorably towards recession'.
The report, by the recruitment website Totaljobs.com, has said that the British are engaged in an intense fight for employment, with the private sector failing to hire redundant State workers in sufficient numbers.
It said that almost 4 million people are looking for jobs and the jobs that draw the attention of most applicants are the ones, which require no professional skills.
The number of applications for each job vacancy has jumped by more than 50 percent for customer service, secretarial and retail roles over the past year, the report said.
On average, the report said 46 people apply for each customer service job, 45 for each secretarial job and 42 for each retail job.
“The omens for 2012 are pretty grim. For starters, we are heading inexorably towards recession with no real end in sight”, said John Salt, director of Totaljobs.com, one of the country's largest recruitment websites.
Overall, the website says there are 23 applications for each job, but the reality is far worse in some parts of the country.
For example, there is an average of 33 applications for each job in the South East, compared with only ten in East Anglia.
“Since March, the whole market has frozen, with companies reluctant to risk a rise in head-count when consumer confidence is taking a battering - and uncertainty around the future of the euro threatens to pull the whole economy back into recession”, said Salt.
“The UK jobs market in 2012 will be weaker than at any time since the recession of the early 1990s”, said John Philpott, chief economic adviser of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
“The combination of worsening job shortages for people without work, mounting job insecurity and a further fall in real earnings for those in work may test the resilience and resolve of the UK workforce far more than it did in the recession of 2008/09”, Philpott said.
He added that there is a 'serious risk' of a surge in private sector redundancies 'given the fragile state of business confidence', but added that there is currently no sign of this happening.
The report, by the recruitment website Totaljobs.com, has said that the British are engaged in an intense fight for employment, with the private sector failing to hire redundant State workers in sufficient numbers.
It said that almost 4 million people are looking for jobs and the jobs that draw the attention of most applicants are the ones, which require no professional skills.
The number of applications for each job vacancy has jumped by more than 50 percent for customer service, secretarial and retail roles over the past year, the report said.
On average, the report said 46 people apply for each customer service job, 45 for each secretarial job and 42 for each retail job.
“The omens for 2012 are pretty grim. For starters, we are heading inexorably towards recession with no real end in sight”, said John Salt, director of Totaljobs.com, one of the country's largest recruitment websites.
Overall, the website says there are 23 applications for each job, but the reality is far worse in some parts of the country.
For example, there is an average of 33 applications for each job in the South East, compared with only ten in East Anglia.
“Since March, the whole market has frozen, with companies reluctant to risk a rise in head-count when consumer confidence is taking a battering - and uncertainty around the future of the euro threatens to pull the whole economy back into recession”, said Salt.
“The UK jobs market in 2012 will be weaker than at any time since the recession of the early 1990s”, said John Philpott, chief economic adviser of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
“The combination of worsening job shortages for people without work, mounting job insecurity and a further fall in real earnings for those in work may test the resilience and resolve of the UK workforce far more than it did in the recession of 2008/09”, Philpott said.
He added that there is a 'serious risk' of a surge in private sector redundancies 'given the fragile state of business confidence', but added that there is currently no sign of this happening.