British jobseekers benefited from the range of resources made available to them during the recession, it has been claimed.
According to the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC), a vast number of measures were put in place to help people find work.
Despite this, Office for National Statistics figures show that the total number of employed people in the UK has been reduced.
The employment rate for the three months to January 2010 was 72.2 per cent, compared to 72.5 per cent in the previous quarter.
It is at its lowest level since the three months to November 1996 and ARC chairman Adrian Marlowe explained that a return to stronger figures is likely to be slow.
He added that employers have done a lot to help keep the employment rate high in the UK.
"What seems to have happened during this recession is that employers have been quite savvy and more sophisticated than they were during the last main recession," Mr Marlowe said.
