According to the latest data released, the jobs market is recording gradual improvement in the UK but pointed out that about half of the job vacancies were in London and southeast England during the previous month.

There are serious concerns that the recovery in the jobs market could further increase the regional divide. The data showed that 2.9 jobseekers for every vacancy, which is the lowest level since more than four years while the number of jobs on offer rose 2.5 per cent to to 504,913 from the same month in the previous year.

The manufacturing sector recorded the largest improvement as jobs offers increased about 6 per cent from the month of December, according to the data released by Adzuna, which was taken from jobs advertised online. It also showed that the advertised salaries fell 2.1 per cent to £33,414 but the salaries were 25 per cent higher than the national average, at £41,795.

London and the South East accounted for 46 per cent of the total openings this year while the North East accounted for just 3.3 per cent and Wales accounted for 1.7 per cent.