How hard is it out there really to find a job?

[soonbeforty]

Am about to be made redundant. Will get a reasonable pay off but will have to find another job, work in admin, senior level. What are my chances do you think? In London, childcare set up full time so not an issue. But am fast approaching forty.
Am interested to know how others are finding it, are there really no jobs? Have been looking in the paper and there seem a few but I'm guessing it's going to be much more competitive than I previously found it.
Would appreciate your stories/advice, what's worked for you?

London better than north. Private better than public sector. Skilled jobs better than unskilled.

Depends where you fall in that bracket. Personally (touch wood) over the last 3 years I've never been more busy but I know a lot of people out of work so maybe it's just down to luck.

London, public and skilled so I guess maybe it'll be okay.

from my experience - quite hard - its taken me 6 months - I have had interviews where a couple of years ago I would have got the job no problem but didn't - if your experience is relevant to the private sector you should be ok

I think it's very dependent on where you are in the country and what your skills are. DH has recently had not one but two people turn down a job offer they'd previously accepted because they got a better offer. On the other hand, he's been feeling chuffed to bits because they've suddenly had Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese applying for jobs, and they have the foreign language skills that he needs (which sadly the UK applicants tend not to have).

We had only 4 or so people apply for the most recent job we advertised at my office, and the woman who got the job is about to leave us (after 3 months) because she's been head-hunted. So now we're panicking about how to find someone new. Again, we need someone with a particular qualification, and it's difficult to find someone.

oh and tips - I got much better results applying directly to employers when the jobs were advertised on their websites, also only really applying for jobs where I was a really good match, and interview prepare really really well. Flexaiblity on both pay and location, Wouldn't worry about age too much

I was looking for a new job exactly when the credit crunch hit and I found a decent job fairly quickly. Key is to keep going with the job apps and to explore all avenues. Apply both direct and via agencies. So many reputable companies use recruitment agents so don't dismiss them. Keep checking the job boards for the latest vacancies. This time may not be great to look for a job but there are always companies out there looking for people..