However, candidate availability is continuing to be a problem, meaning some contractors have more work than they can deal with. Permanent workers are also seeing demand for their services rise and professional recruitment firms have noted a 20 per cent rise in vacancies on their books overall. Permanent vacancies have increased across engineering, IT, accounting and finance, social work, and media and marketing sectors year-on-year. Engineering, IT and accounting and finance enjoyed strong rises of 35 per cent, 22 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.