Look at South-East England

The job market in the south-east remains stable, with half of organisations recruiting to replace staff and a third of them planning to recruit to grow. Recruitment demand has fallen by 1 per cent from last year.
Redundancies are slightly up in the service and public sectors with Hampshire and the Isle of Wight having the country's highest redundancy rates at nearly 2 per cent. The worst-hit sector, following the advertising downturn, has been publishing and media, where downsizing is predicted to affect 13 per cent of organisations. All employment sectors are buoyant, but driving, warehouse, security, IT and telecoms predominate.
The central south coast has a relatively broad industrial base, showing diversity, a skilled workforce and an attractive environment. Many Service leavers stay in the area and competition for jobs is high. There are pockets of deprivation and high unemployment surrounded by relatively affluent areas. At the heart of the area are Portsmouth and Southampton, which are both important commercial and continental ferry ports. Communications are good but main roads suffer from severe bottlenecks; rail services are reasonable, although bus services are patchy. The Isle of Wight remains a strong tourist attraction.
The Thames Valley's highly competitive workforce is heavily dependent on service-sector employment. Key sectors include wholesale and retailing, business services, health and social work. Employers increasingly expect workers to be multi-skilled and to use new technology; Service leavers should therefore emphasise their continual learning cycle and their IT skills.
Kent continues to have reducing unemployment and many Service leavers have seen jobs rise and unemployment fall where they live. The area has gateways to both London and Europe, so Service leavers can consider work in both these areas. In Sussex, opportunities are not as readily available, and do not have the same level of remuneration.
Opportunities and skills shortages
With some schools cancelling classes due to teacher shortages, salaries of £6,000 have been introduced for teachers in training. Subjects most in demand are maths, technology, science and foreign languages; trainees in these areas receive a 'golden hello' of £4,000.
The shortfall in social workers has one in five positions unfilled generally and, within the residential social work sector, there is even more of a problem. Pay is not good and the environment can be very difficult.
The most sought-after IT people have Java, C++, telecoms and WAP knowledge. High-level database skills such as Unix and Linux are also much in demand, with companies employing such people as they move away from the dominance of Microsoft.
Manufacturing, transportation and warehousing have led employment growth, gaining nearly 20,000 jobs recently. Most manufacturers, however, find it difficult to recruit at the senior managerial level and that junior and middle managers are even harder to find, with the usual lack of LGV C+E drivers.
The charity sector is now better paid, and attracting more people. Nevertheless, the sector still experiences severe recruitment difficulties.
There are skill shortages in all areas and at all levels in the service sector, including sales, marketing, administration, technical and business management. This is at crisis point in catering, with the sector having 30,000 unfilled positions.
Main opportunities within the defence industry are for skilled aerospace technicians. Mechanical engineers can find vacancies from middle management to trainee positions. In the high-street garage sector there is a shortage of vehicle mechanics and service advisers.
Fewer companies plan to downsize, the rolling stock industry is rapidly expanding, and plumbing and gas installation skills are in great demand.
Some companies' operations are migrating overseas, and both the Isle of Wight and the Blackwater Valley have seen cutbacks.
Employers
Companies set to expand include Flagship Training, BDML Connect, Astrium, the Pompey Centre, Amazon books, B&Q, P&O, Eurotunnel and Maidstone's new shopping centre, with Kent Police and the Prison Service intending to recruit in 2003.
Reductions include security staff at Luton and London airports, the Prudential's Reading call centre, Cable & Wireless, Vodafone, Space Technology Systems, Serco Test Systems and Vosper Thornycroft (if it does not get part of a contract to build new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy).
Salaries
A rough guide to salaries in the region is given below. This is inevitably very general and there will be variations between industries and also in various parts of the south-east.

House price guide
The following prices are a rough guide only to property prices and are liable to overnight change as financial factors in the country as well as in the region affect housing.

Information courtesy of the Career Transition Partnership