Recruitment activity in the UK is growing, according to three reports out this week.

Financial services firm ICAP says there is more demand for jobs in both the temporary and permanent recruitment markets, with a growth of 7.6% in vacancies.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) Labour Market Outlook report also suggests positive news on the job front for the rest of the year.

Net employment intentions – the difference between the proportion of employers that intend to increase total staffing levels and those that intend to decrease total staffing levels – remain positive for the third quarter of 2012 at +7, compared to +5 during the previous three months. This is the third consecutive quarter of projected growth recorded by the CIPD’s report, continuing the actual labour market trends recorded over the last six months.

Online recruitment in the UK has grown for the third consecutive month, according to the Monster Employment Index.

The index reports a moderate annual increase of 1% in online recruitment in October, establishing a three-month positive trend.

The strongest-performing sector is public sector, defence and community, which is up 48% year-on-year. 

Construction and extraction is the weakest-performing sector, down 14% year-on-year.