The jobs market showed ‘signs of life’ during October, according to the latest figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.

The REC’s labour market tracker found that there were 706,480 new job postings in October, up 4.8% from the month before.

The number of overall active job postings in October was down slightly to 1,542,674. However, this was a decrease of 0.6% on the number of job postings in September.

The REC said this continued a trend of moderation that began before the pandemic, and reflected the lower number of new jobs posted over the summer.

Roles in highest demand were programmes and software development professionals. Solicitors, lawyers and chartered or certified accountants were also highly sought after.

During October, the roles that saw the largest increase were delivery drivers, postal workers and mail sorters, and authors, writers and translators.

The largest decline hit beauticians, painters and decorators, and probation officers.

In terms of location, Wandsworth (13%), East Dunbartonshire (11.6%) and Dumfries and Galloway (11.5%) showed the highest increase in job postings.

REC chief executive Neil Carberry said the latest figures showed that there was “underlying resilience” in the jobs market.

He said: “These numbers come from before the Budget, which was a challenging one for businesses when it comes to employment costs.

“If firms become more confident about the path of the economy they will invest in new products and jobs.

“The challenge now is for the chancellor and the Bank of England to get behind businesses with more positive support for growth. That should start with making sure new laws, like the Employment Rights Bill, encourage firms to create jobs of all forms.”

Carberry added that Christmas hiring could add a further boost to the market, although recent figures from Indeed has shown that seasonal hiring is so far comparatively slow.

He said: “Employers have improved how they model Christmas hiring needs in the past few years, leading to a steadier, lower Christmas “peak”.

“With household finances in a better state this year, consumer confidence at a five-year high and a predicted splurge of advertising spending, many firms will be looking to add staff in the final weeks.”