If you’re fed up with your Significant Other taking hours preening themselves before hitting the town, apparently jobseekers in Downturn Britain insist that getting dressed for an interview is now more important than dolling up for a night out.

According to a survey from Hays, more than a third of respondents spend more time on their appearance due to the added competition for jobs. A significant proportion — 90% — said they spent more time looking the part for an interview and only 10% said they would put in more effort if they were going out to a club. And before you assume which of the sexes is the worst at this, more men (10%) than women (6%) say they spend more than two hours getting ready…

Having a good luck charm in an interview can be just as important for some jobseekers. From the Hays survey, perhaps the more bizarre choice of charms consisted of a Chinese rat charm, the ubiquitous lucky underwear, a garter belt, a piece of volcano and even a picture of Richard Hammond from BBC’s Top Gear and model Agyness Deyn.

You would’ve thought that a locket containing a picture of Siralan (Sugar) would make the Employment Gods more likely to smile down on them in an interview.