Vacancies have increased in the construction industry as well as for gardeners, teachers and maintenance workers, according to a new report.

Research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and data firm Lightcast showed a recent fall in demand for veterinary nurses, delivery drivers and train and tram drivers.

The number of jobs advertised last month was more than 1.5m a slight increase on January, although newly posted job opportunities in February were 10% lower.

The REC chief executive, Neil Carberry, said: “Firms have been working hard to find growth in the face of rising costs since the budget, and it is reassuring that some are now feeling more ready to hire.”

Construction firms have reported low levels of activity in recent months in response to uncertainty about the outlook for housing and commercial building projects.

However, plans by the government to boost housing starts, lower interest rates and rising property prices have meant firms are now hoping to increase capacity and hire more workers.

Carberry said: “The same applies to the substantial rise in adverts for parts of the underpressure hospitality sector.”

He said a sustained recovery in IT recruitment was still yet to arrive, “but there are still opportunities for such workers with 30,000 job postings for programmers and software development professionals and nearly 12,000 for IT business analysts, architects and systems designers”.