Recruitment experts say Brighton and Crawley will hot spots for jobs in the coming weeks.

Sophie Westwood, business manager at the Brighton office of Manpower, said: "Job prospects are looking extremely healthy. Brighton's market has recently seen a significant upturn.

"It is experiencing business growth and Manpower has seen an increase in the number of temporary and permanent staff out across all sectors.

"In the past three months temporary business has doubled and we feel confident this trend will continue. Our experience also shows the local permanent market is buoyant.

"We are seeing more new businesses develop in the area, taking advantage of the quality lifestyle Brighton offers."

She said other entrepreneurs were attracted by the city's reputation as being the UK's most profitable place to do business and the city's listing by the Key British Enterprises survey as a top place to do business.

Ms Westwood said: "These new businesses all need workers, which can only be good news for the community."

Tony Burclaff, who runs Manpower's Crawley office, said: "Employment prospects here are looking increasingly healthy."

Mr Burclaff has seen a steady pick up in the number of vacancies in the Crawley and Gatwick areas.

He said: "We are experiencing month-on-month growth in the number of jobs available for temporary and permanent staff.

"In July, temporary numbers were up ten per cent on June and we feel this trend will continue for Crawley across August as the beginning of the month has been one of our most busy yet.

"In the past year, we have seen the Sussex economy face major setbacks so we are delighted that the bad times Gatwick and Crawley suffered post September 11 are coming to an end."

The Manpower quarterly survey asked more than 2,500 companies, spanning 12 regions and 19 industries, if they expect an increase, decrease or no change in their staffing levels before the end of September.

A net job gains is calculated by subtracting the percentage of companies expecting to reduce staff numbers by the percentage expecting to take on staff.

Net job gains in the South-East were 16 this quarter, making the region one of the strongest in the UK for new jobs.