Are things getting better? Is the recession over? Is it getting easier to find a job? It’s hard to tell. There are lots of confusing signals out there. The recession is finally over, as reported in the Guardian, but a 0.1% growth in the economy over the last three months of 2009 can hardly be described as exciting. Unemployment figures are also down, for the first time in 18 months as reported by the BBC (who also provide a handy map of regional unemployment levels).

Both these things seem like good news, but the news is also full of reports of large employers cutting jobs – Glaxo has announced that it’s cutting 3,000 jobs in Europe and the US, while fellow pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca is cutting 8,000 jobs, Ericsson is planning to cut 6,500 jobs (after already announcing that it would close its Coventry plant with the loss of 700 jobs in November), United Utilities also promised job cuts, the recession in Japan has prompted Toyota to plan 750 job losses at its plant in Derbyshire and finally the loss of 180 jobs from Shop Direct in Powys could increase local unemployment by 5%.

All of these concerns have prompted some to warn of the dreaded ‘double dip’ recession. With so many contradictory things going on these are certainly confusing times for job seekers. Our advice is to assume that the worst isn’t over, don’t be complacent, even if the economy is recovering it can take time for the recovery to filter down to job seekers. This is also a great time to keep on top of jobs posted on employer’s careers sites – with employers under pressure to cut budgets they are much more likely to advertise jobs for free on their own websites than engage expensive recruitment consultants charging up to 20% of salary to fill vacancies – here’s the list of all the employer websites we link too – good luck!

Yesterday’s official unemployment figures, up 30,000 to 2.46 million were greeted with some relief in many quarters as they were not as bad as had been expected.

The Guardian were relatively positive, but pointed out that many people without full time roles had turned to temporary work or education to avoid the dole queue and emphasized that one in five under 24’s were not working. The economics editor of the Telegraph used his blog to point out that the total number not working was more like 5.7 million (if you include all people that would like to work full-time, but for some reason can’t). The Daily Mail went even further, saying that 8 million have no job (and don’t even want one) and that those people in employment were more likely to have taken part-time roles on lower salaries with little job security than in previous markets. The REC (the trade body that represents recruitment consultants) was relatively dry on the matter, saying that practical support for job seekers remained crucial and (unsurprisingly) encouraged public sector employers to work with its members to help stem unemployment.

Whichever you look at it (and the Guardian provides a useful summary of what economists think) times are still tough for job seekers and employers are able to recruit more easily and at less cost than in recent years. Given this, it’s probably right for job seekers to be flexible, take that job at a slightly lower salary than you would have hoped for a couple of years ago, get your foot in the door of the organisation and aim to progress once inside – tough medicine, but worth considering.