Monster Employment Index Europe Dips Slightly in September, Due to Reduced Recruitment Activity in Germany and UK

The Monster Employment Index Europe dipped in September, edging down two points to a level of 124, as slightly reduced online recruitment activity in Germany and the UK offset solid gains in France and the Netherlands, and a significant surge in Sweden. Year-on-year growth in online job availability across Europe according to the Index now stands at 17 points or 16 percent.

The full Monster Employment Index Europe report is available online at http://euindex.monsterworldwide.com. Visitors can subscribe to receive the European Index report, as well as any or all of the five country-specific Index reports on a monthly basis via email. Monster Employment Index Europe data for October will be released on November 14, 2006.

Following positive upward trends across many key economic sectors in August, the Index showed a general decrease across several key economic sectors in September. The education, training and library sector registered the sharpest rate of decline, falling 12 points, while the production, manufacturing, maintenance and repair; IT; and sales sectors also registered fewer job postings. A drop in the transport, post and logistics sector was largely due to a decline in the German market, following strong recent momentum.

In September, most occupational categories registered declines in online recruitment activity, with a sharp drop reported for service, shop and market sales workers. The only category that showed increased opportunities was skilled agricultural workers, with France exhibiting the strongest monthly rate of growth.

Monster Employment Index Europe results for the past 14 months are as follows:

Sep 06	Aug 06	Jul 06	Jun 06	May 06	Apr 06	Mar 06	Feb 06	Jan 06	Dec 05	Nov 05	Oct 05	Sep 05	Aug 05
124	126	125	121	116	116	117	116	106	112	111	112	107	106

Findings for the five countries tracked by the Monster Employment Index Europe for the past 14 months are as follows:

Country	Sep 06	Aug 06	Jul 06	Jun 06	May 06	Apr 06	Mar 06	Feb 06	Jan 06	Dec 05	Nov 05	Oct 05	Sep 05	Aug 05
France	128	124	146	126	119	123	118	122	107	112	110	111	91	99
Germany	119	121	119	115	115	112	113	109	106	109	111	112	111	108
Netherlands	163	160	154	159	155	148	136	126	116	119	113	111	105	105
Sweden	123	112	116	129	117	119	117	111	116	109	101	100	97	86
United Kingdom	125	128	123	125	108	115	120	128	101	118	108	108	100	102

Launched in June 2005 with data collected since December 2004, the Monster Employment Index Europe is compiled by Monster Worldwide, parent company of leading global online careers and recruitment resource, Monster®. The Index was established to provide European labour market watchers with a valuable monthly snapshot of online recruitment activity based on the researching of millions of employer postings across more than 1,400 Web sites. In addition to providing an analysis of European online job demand, the Index offers a sub-index by occupation, including data on nine occupational categories in five countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The Index is independently audited by ARC Research, a U.S.-based market research company, to ensure the accuracy of the data within a margin of error of +/- 1.05%. The Monster Employment Index debuted in the U.S. in April 2004.