With well-known companies from the private sector shedding thousands of staff, those parts of the public sector with posts to fill could reap the benefit.

Across the labour force as a whole, the period August to October brought a 6.3 per cent reduction in vacancies compared with July to September, according to the Office for National Statistics. But Britain’s schools and hospitals and the continuing military deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq remain sources of potential employment.

While financial uncertainty coupled with the impending arrival of Christmas mean that temporary staff are the order of the day for many companies, those looking for permanent posts might find their greatest hope of success in the public sector.

The need for teachers remains pretty stable whatever the economic weather, and there are particular shortages in some subjects, such as maths and foreign languages.

The NHS has about 10,000 jobs on offer in England at any one time, not all of them just for the medically qualified. A search for “accounting” on the health service website yesterday yielded 44 vacancies, and a spokesman for NHS Employers said that there were “great opportunities for people who previously hadn’t thought about a career in the public sector but have very transferable skills”.

Amid continued reports of severe manning shortfalls — the full-time trained strength of the Armed Forces was almost 6,000 below target as of July — military careers offices remain very much open for business. The Army is continuing its One Army recruitment campaign, and infantry recruitment is up this year compared with last.

Not all public sector employees are safe in their jobs. Town hall employees, for example, are facing cuts as councils restructure and seek to balance their books. For other elements of the public sector, however, the current wave of redundancies could prove to be a welcome opportunity to attract candidates who might once have looked elsewhere.

The London Olympics is perhaps the most high-profile recruiter offering private sector vacancies in the face of the current gloom. The Organising Committee will need about 3,000 staff by 2011-12 and is continually expanding its workforce from the approximately 200 it currently employs.

Peak employment at the Olympic park building site will be about 20,000 in 2010.

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