No jobs

Unstoppable_2

33% unemployment rate in my area. Still plenty of jobs being advertised though and I'm still applying for them. Agencies seem to have plenty of adverts with no real jobs though. My agency finally admitted that they take on people to meet recruitment targets even though they've not enough work to keep the regulars going.

3plus1

I went to the Job Centre once, when I was first looking for work.

I duly browsed through the jobs on offer using their electronic kiosk and printed off the ones that sounded most suitable for me. I then went to see an advisor, showed him the jobs I'd printed off and explained I was looking for an office job with public transport links as I didn't drive. He looked at me with contempt, said I couldn't do any of those jobs and said he had something more suitable. He dug out an advert for a fruit picker at a farm deep within the countryside. As I couldn't drive, there was no way I could have reached the farm - never mind I had a medical condition that meant I wouldn't have been able to do manual labour anyway.

He was thoroughly unhelpful and made me feel bad about myelf so I didn't return. Based on my experience, I would only deal with the Job Centre if I needed to claim benefits as they're the only people who can sort that out. If I wanted a job, I'd go elsewhere.

After trying the Job Centre to no avail, I signed on with a recruitment agency who managed to get my foot in the door within a week. I worked hard, was reliable and that meant they could get me more assignments and I ended up with work to go to whenever I wanted it.

The people who work for recruitment agencies are much nicer, presumably because they earn more and work in less depressing buildings, and are more motivated to get you a job because that results in them getting more money. They're constantly trying to drum up new work with new clients and old clients are ringing them to tell them about new jobs. Which means there is work out there that never makes it to a newspaper or website - only the agency ever finds out. They can usually find someone to cover the job so quickly that they never need to advertise it in print.

Definitely give an agency (or two) a shout. Keep looking for jobs yourself, but also get someone (ie an agency) to look for jobs for you. Helps increase your chances of actually getting something!

Don't give up and certainly don't let the Job Centre staff get you down.