Recruitment back to pre-recession levels in the West Midlands

And the hiring intentions of companies in the region are ahead of the national average, fuelled largely by the West Midlands's manufacturing strength.

As the sector thrives, the region as a whole is outpacing the national employment outlook, according to a survey of more than 2,000 companies by recruitment agency Manpower.

Krissie Davies, operations director at Manpower UK, said: "The region has long been a hub for engineering and manufacturing and it is this sector again that is producing the greatest opportunity for job seekers."

She added: "It is not just manufacturing that is booming. Sales and customer service positions within the media, marketing, insurance and financial services industries, as well as logistics managers, are all in strong demand in the region.

"While the majority of these roles are full time, employers are being increasingly flexible to ensure that they are able to secure the very best candidates – for example, allowing staff to work around school hours to help parents return to work."

Manpower's managing director for solutions, James Hick, said the region was also seeing a return to growth for the retail sector, boosted by projects such as West Bromwich's New Square shopping centre and the new Sainsbury's superstore in Wolverhampton as well the growing numbers of smaller convenience stores.

"Now is the first time since 2007 that retail has seen such demand. It is now one of the strongest sectors for hiring at the moment."

In addition, the expansion of Amazon's distribition centre at Rugeley was leading to growth in the number of people taking on delivery work built around their family commitments.

"There are thousands of people taking up so-called 'lifestyle' work on the back of the surge in internet shopping, carrying out deliver jobs after they have dropped the children at school in the mornings, or working in the evenings," said Mr Hick. "We are seeing firms like Amazon setting up distribution networks using self-employed people who are building lifestyle careers."

Mr Hick said Manpower was also seeing more local authorities taking on professional staff on temporary contracts to handle major change in the organisations, rather than building up large numbers of permanent staff.