The staff working overtime to help those hit by the recession

But there is one area at least which is bucking the trend. Job Centres are taking on more staff and asking employees to work overtime to cope with the upsurge in numbers signing on.

For those finding themselves redundant, often after many years in the same job, the experience can be over-whelming.

But the staff at the Jobcentre Plus are keen to point out that help and advice are available.

And they are also hitting back at allegations that they don’t do enough or act quickly enough to help those who are losing their jobs.

There have been reports nationally that job centres are struggling to cope with a rising tide of unemployed office workers, bankers and service staff – many of them on the dole for the first time.

Tracy Macrae, the manager for the Bradford cluster of offices which cover Keighley and Guiseley, acknowledged that the number of people losing their jobs was increasing, and that this included people who were seeking the help of Jobcentre Plus for the first time.

But she stressed that there were still many vacancies out there and that the centre was pulling out all the stops to get people back into work.

Certainly those whose previous experience of signing on was some years ago will be pleasantly surprised by the changes which have taken place.

The Guiseley centre is the very opposite of the dingy, depressing centres many people remember from years gone by.

There are no long queues in the smart modern open-plan office, complete with touch-screen “job points.”

Tracy said “many people are not aware that Jobcentres have been completely transformed and modernised. Today’s Jobcentres are modern and bright, with computerised job–points which Jobseekers can use to easily search for jobs by occupation and locality”.

She added: “It isn’t just the environment that has changed though. The procedures for making a claim and ‘signing on’ have improved dramatically too and we have increased staffing and streamlined processes to deal with greater numbers of claims”.

A total of 67,518 vacancies were notified to Jobcentre Plus in the region in the three months up to January 2009 in a wide range of different occupations. In West Yorkshire in January 6,064 vacancies were received. And with the Jobcentre Plus handling about a third of all vacancies, officials say the total number of jobs around is much higher.

Whilst acknowledging that we are in difficult times Jobcentre staff say they are doing everything they can to help people get back into work – and they say they are producing good results.

Tracy said: “We are getting newly redundant people who have been in work for years. So it is a shock for them obviously but we have got quite a good package of measures to support those people now.”

The jobcentres at Keighley and Guiseley have been taking on extra staff, and employees are being asked to work overtime in a bid to offer help to the unemployed.

And they say there are many success stories – with nearly around two thirds of people finding work within 13 weeks of claiming jobseekers allowance.

When mass redundancies are due, Jobcentre staff are able to go out to companies to give immediate help and advice.

It’s a policy they used with Woolworths – and they say a large proportion of the company’s staff in this area went straight into other jobs, being snapped up by new employers.

Officials say the Rapid Response Service has been strengthened and expanded nationally, with funding having double for this financial year from £3m to £6m and set to double again in 2009/10 to £12m.

The service offers to help in a number of ways, including the provision of workplace jobs fairs, matching people to jobs vacancies, and giving help to draw up CVs.

For most people who have lost their jobs the most pressing need is money, so the first step is to claim jobseekers allowance.

This can be done by calling a freephone number to be connected to a contact centre. A member of staff will take the caller through a series of questions to complete an electronic claim form.

This will then be followed up – usually within three days – with an appointment with a personal advisor at a Jobcentre.

And despite the increasing number of claims officials say they are making payments well within the 11.5 day target.

When people lose their jobs their immediate concerns, not surprisingly centre around money.

Tracy said: “They are initially worried about money and that is the first barrier we have to get over. And the benefits are the primary thing they want to sort in the first hour. Once that is sorted it is much more job focussed.”

“There is a certain element of shell shock and because they are not relishing being in that position we really do try to put people at their ease.”

“In terms of the benefits even though we have had this rise in numbers they are being processed very quickly and we are hitting our targets.”

Officials say despite the increase in numbers they are still seeing the vast majority of customers within three days. And they add that claims are being processed within ten days.

When it comes to finding a job officials say the majority of customers are on Jobseekers allowance for less than three months before finding work and more than 90 per cent are off the books within a year.

And at the Guiseley centre they say they have had a number of phone calls over the last few weeks from customers saying how delighted they were that they had got a job so quickly.

They say despite the undeniable increase in job losses the situation is not all doom and gloom if people are prepared to be flexible. And they say job seekers are showing a greater willingness to consider different types of jobs.

Tracy said: “I think people are becoming much more flexible – they are willing to travel further for the jobs.

“They are realising that jobs might not be on the doorstep, and they might have to travel to Leeds or Bradford.”

People looking for jobs are also being advised to widen their options and to consider different types of work – if only as a step to finding the job they really want.

In recent months jobcentres around the country have come in for criticism for failing to offer adequate support to highly skilled professionals.

But Tracy said: “There has been some press saying we are not able to deal with people with higher skill levels for example.”

But she said a series of measures were being introduced next month specifically to help address the issue.

She said there would be support tailored to people who had got higher skill levels. And while traditionally employers have not come to job centres to find people with higher skill levels they will now be encouraged to do so. A spokesman said: “If you are a engineering works looking for a human resources manager, for instance, instead of having to spend £5,000 or £6,000 recruiting someone we might be able to do that for you.”

Meanwhile churchgoers are offering job hunting support and advice to people who have found themselves unemployed amid cutbacks by retailers and many other firms.

Members of Christchurch in Ilkley have decided to help the community by doing more than simply offering sympathy to local people who have lost their jobs.

A job club is offering free informal advice on CV preparation, interview techniques and other aspects of landing a new job each Thursday afternoon.

Church members Brian Scott came up with the idea after discussions within the church about the threat of redundancy facing Ilkley’s Woolworths staff over Christmas.

The church minister, the Rev Rob Hilton, went to talk to staff in the store before it closed, to let them know the community was thinking about all of them.

Mr Hilton delivered greetings cards to each employee of Woolworths in Ilkley. Now Mr Scott, assisted by other church members with specialist recruitment and employment knowledge, will be holding drop-in job club sessions between 2 and 4pm each Thursday. Mr Scott, a retired careers advisors, hopes his services will be of use to those actively seeking jobs.