While the online job market registered a year-on-year decline in July, the public sector, defence and community category showed a significant rise in job openings, finds job board Monster’s Employment Index UK.

The 3% year-on-year drop in online job postings was the first overall negative growth trend in 30 months and follows static growth in June. The index is compiled by surveying trends across a large number of corporate careers sites and job boards, including Monster.

Public sector roles were up 23%, mostly as a result of increased demand for part-time and voluntary roles, Monster notes. The only other sector with double-digit growth was research and development at 10% – the sector’s highest growth rate in four months. After this, the top growth sector was transport, post and logistics, which was up 5%.

Four industries saw a year-on-year decline exceeding 10%, namely, banking, finance and insurance (13%), marketing, PR and media (12%), construction and extraction (12%) and production, manufacturing, maintenance and repair (11%).

Nationally, the only region which saw an increase in online recruitment was Midlands, at 1%, with a major boost to the region coming with the announcement of 1,000 new jobs at auto maker Jaguar Land Rover at Castle Bromwich. Regions with the worst slumps were Northern Ireland (8%), the South-West (9%) and Wales (13%).

Julian Acquari, managing director of Monster UK & Ireland says: “Once the seasonal stagnation over the summer months subsides, we may see this start to turn.”