Job hunting through an employment agency is an increasingly popular way of finding work in the UK. Agencies do a lot of the hard work for you by sending your curriculum vitae (CV) to a wide range of potential employers. Agency staff are also eligible for a number of benefits under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and later rule changes.

If you are a foreign national - a person from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) - working while you're in the UK, you'll be required to hold a UK identity card as part of the National Identity Scheme (NIS) from 25 November 2008. Find out more from the UK Border Agency website.

What can an employment agency do for you?

There are approximately 17,000 employment agencies in the UK, advertising about 4 million vacancies every year. Of these, about 20 per cent of them come from the 20 largest agencies, with the remaining 80 per cent coming from sector/geographic and small and medium agencies.

Submitting your CV to a recruitment agency has a number of advantages:

• if you're working full-time, the recruitment agency can work on your behalf while you apply for other jobs directly
• specialist agencies will be able to offer advice about their sector
• it's easy to gain short-term experience with a number of employers
• you stand a good chance of finding work before you arrive in a new town or city.
  

General rules for using employment agencies

You can do a number of things to improve your chances of getting a job through an agency, including:

• supply a CV that is targeted towards a specific job sector
• be honest with the agency and tell them about any important factors, such as health problems
• tell the agency if you don't want them to send your CV to a particular company
• contact your consultant regularly for progress updates
• don't rely on one agency as your only means of finding a job - you are perfectly entitled to sign on with as many as you like.

What are your rights when registering with an agency?

You can find information about your rights when you register with an employment agency on the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) website.

Finding a job online

A number of websites serve as portals for a selection of job agencies. You can sign up to receive regular emails about possible jobs advertised by different agencies on the portal. Or you can just visit them on a regular basis to check what is available in your field.

Totaljobs, AlljobsUK, Reed, Agency Central, Guardian Jobs, Monster, Jobfit and Recruitment Agency UK are all worth visiting.

If you can't find what you're looking for on any of these websites, check your local newspaper for job listings and recruitment agencies in your area.