The government-backed Jobcentre Plus has reported a significant increase in the number of people using its website to look for vacant positions. In 2007 the website has received more than 70 million job searches, the equivalent of an average six millions searches a week.

Jobcentre Plus is now the UK’s leading recruitment website accounting for 14 percent of the recruitment market. It said it has experienced unprecedented growth in the last six months, with the number of people visiting the website up 700,000 on the same period last year and the average job searches rocketing by more than a million.

The number of positions being advertised by employers has also jumped. Jobcentre Plus said its specialist employer service, Employer Direct Online, had received an average of 10,000 vacancies a week.

Lesley Strathie, chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, said: “This growth reflects a wider trend amongst individual people and employers to use the internet to find and fill jobs. It also shows the increasing significance of Jobcentre Plus in the UK recruitment market.”