The number of job ads placed on Reed, one of the UK's biggest recruiters, has fallen sharply.

Britain’s hitherto resilient labour market is showing signs of stress, according to data from Reed which indicates that the total number of vacancies posted has slumped by 16,467 over the second quarter, equivalent to a 2.3% contraction.

Such a decline would represent the single greatest quarterly fall in over nine years, indicating that recent job creation rates might not be sustained amid an economic slowdown.

Reed said the analysis was an early warning indicator for trouble brewing in the economy, charting the confidence of employers to advertise for new positions.

The job site is currently advertising over 300,000 vacancies around the UK led by the south-east of England where 129,503 positions are available. At the other end of the scale, job hunters in Northern Ireland have just 1,097 posts to choose from.

According to the Office for National Statistics British unemployment rate currently stands at 3.8%, the lowest it has been since 1974, with the employment rate of 76.1% also standing as the joint highest on record.