Newspapers sell headlines. That's their business. And in this fast food culture we live in bite size headlines are the most easily digested. "Worst Year for Employment for 20 Years"

The problem with quick snapshots is that they don't always reflect the detail. It's true that unemployment is at a scary level. But it's surprising to hear that in some regions of the UK unemployment has dropped over the last six months.

Not surprisingly the West Midlands with a strong manufacturing base has suffered and unemployment has risen from 6.5% to 7.7%. But despite big losses in the City unemployment in London has fallen from 7.4% to 7.2%. Yorkshire and Humberside has transitioned over the past twenty years from heavy industry to service sector jobs and it has seen unemployment fall over the last six months.

Looking at the headline figures would lead to think it's worth calling it a day. But it's in the detail that opportunity presents. 

* Figures take from ONS Labour Market Data

There's an interesting perspective on Fistful of Talent from a corporate recruiter. By 10AM she's already had three calls from different agency recruiters each of them claiming to be uniquely positioned to help with all their hiring needs.

I know from my days back in the dotcom crash what it's like to have never ending calls from recruiters looking to source new business. Once you've had your tenth call of the day there's no way for any recruiter to stand out.

With the downturn it's no surprise that recruiters are out there working the phones looking for leads. But it's time to try something different. Some methods will fall flat. Some might turn average results during the downturn but take off during the upturn. 

Maybe it's networking, maybe it's blogging, maybe it's being an expert on LinkedIn. It's not cold calling... 

It's been interesting to watch the dispute over the use of foreign labour at the Total oil plant in Lincolnshire. As a brief background to what's going on - Total awarded a contract to IREM an Italian company. IREM agreed to the contract on the condition that it could use its existing Italian and Portuguese workers to complete the work. The strikes at the Total depot and the numerous walkouts in support at other energy plants are as a result of British workers not being able to apply for the roles. It looks like an agreement has been reached for the time being that a new contract will involve some use of British workers. The widespread walkouts hint at the depth of sentiment held by UK energy workers. 

We're staring at a big gap in our energy production over the next decade. A number of coal power stations are set to close due to stricter emissions standards and many nuclear power stations are approaching the end of their intended life. We're still some way behind in our use of renewables with Germany generating ten times as much power from wind as the UK. North Sea gas and oil are declining and by 2015 we'll be importing gas and oil at a rate we've never seen. On top of all this we've signed up to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2010 and 60% by 2050. We've clearly got a major challenge ahead.

But universities are producing less engineering graduates with a 45% in the number of engineering students between 2001 and 2006. Industry body E3 academy think that only 40% of electrical engineering graduates go on to follow a career in the industry. 

It's clear we're going to need to look further afield to face the challenges in electricity generation. But after the events of this week employers are likely to be mindful of relations with existing workers. The next few years are going to be an interesting time for engineering recruitment.