With today's changing economic climate, there is a real need to keep your job-hunting skills fresh and up to date. Ways of finding employment today have changed from the way that they were ten years ago, we have many more resources at our disposal and if you really want to, you can find a job if you use all the tools available, to your advantage.

Below are my top 10 effective ways to job-hunt and secure employment in a very competitive market. It does sometimes seem like there are ten people waiting to apply for that one job that is advertised in the paper or on websites, but if you put all of the tips below to use, you are certainly on the right road to finding employment.

So, my top 10 tips are:

1. Make use of Internet resources and recruitment websites such as Total Jobs, Monster and Reed. There are a vast number of these sites available, they cater for almost any industry and role and today this is the preferred method of advertising for vacant roles by employers.

2. Fax or e-mail your CV to all of the temporary employment agencies that you find listed in your local phonebook, or area that you're job hunting in. Always use a personalised cover letter and make it job specific.

3. Use temporary employment agencies as a springboard to permanent employment. Due to the economic climate at present Companies are less willing to recruit permanent member of staff so there are many more temporary roles around at the moment than there have been in recent years. By starting as a temporary member of staff you'll have the flexibility if it's not the right role to leave whenever you want to and if it is the right role and you perform well, there's always a chance that you might be taken on permanently.

4. Make sure you pick up a daily newspaper, you should ideally look in the press which reflects the area you're looking for work in, so a national paper if you're looking at working in London or a local newspaper if you're looking locally.

5. Speculative applications are often forgotten however use the post, internet and fax machine and send your CV (by the dozens) to companies that you would like to work for. Don't get discouraged if you don't hear back right away just keep on sending them out until you do.

6. Go to your local Job Centre and register. They can be invaluable resources when it comes to looking for a job. They are also able to offer excellent career advice and even information of training schemes etc which might help you get into employment.

7. Take advantage of free job search resources (such as CV printing) offered by the Job Centre. Some Job Centre's even offer telephone message answering services (for those with no telephones) so you can put a call back number on your application.

8. Use your local yellow pages etc to call companies and see if they are accepting applications or taking CV's. If they are you can immediately send them your CV or get your local Job Centre to do the faxing for you.

9. Go door to door (to businesses) with a bag full of CV's. Some employers like to see the faces behind CV's and you just may arrive at a business when there is an opening that you qualify for. (Timing is everything in some cases).

10. Don't forget your family and friends. There may be job openings or vacancies you might be able to apply for at family or friend's Companies, and with a referral from a member of staff you're much more likely to get to the interview stage as you have a personal recommendation already.

Using these tips, should aid your job hunt and be much more focused and effective. You do not want to waste yours' or anyone else's time. Having many effective job searching tools is a start to finding employment in the shortest time period necessary, good luck!