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The number of permanent jobs being filled grew at its slowest rate for 18 months, stoking fears of an unemployment rise.
Although the absolute number grew, the pace of growth in November showed a drop off and could turn negative.
The number of permanent jobs is on the wain again, according to a new report.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG Report on Jobs found that the number of long-term placements rose at its slowest rate for ten months, suggesting that the economic 'recovery' may be losing steam.
Salaries too tailed off, growing at their slowest rate for four months as the squeeze on living standards continued.
Unemployment will fall to 5.6% by the end of next year from its current 6.5%, according to a group of economists.
The Item Club believes the UK's growth will be higher than any other rich economy's, creating more jobs and ensuring worklessness falls.
Criticisms of the way the coalition has managed the country's finances will be swept away, with over-spending falling and companies starting to release some of their huge cash stocks.
Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the Item Club, said:
The number of benefit sanctions rose to a record 897,690 in the year to September, the Department for Work and Pensions has revealed.
Sanctions see claimants having their benefits removed for four weeks the first time they are applied, and can stretch to years subsequently.
In the final year of Labour government in 2009-10, 500,000 Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) sanctions were handed out -itself a record number - compared to 874,850 last year.
Recent falls in unemployment showed a slowdown in the last three months, with the rate now at 7.2% or 2.34 million people.
125,000 fewer people were unemployed in October to December, but the fall was slower than in recent months, suggesting that the economic recovery may be losing steam.
There are now 30.15 million people in work, 72.1% of the working age population.
Unlike in recent months, the employment number did not set a new record, further proof that growth may be slowing.
The monthly unemployment numbers are out this week, and they are likely to show a slowdown in new UK jobs.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which surveys employers on their staffing needs, says that there has been a drop in those saying they will be taking on new workers to 54%.
Last year 65% agreed with this, while one-in-five said they would be getting rid of employees in the next three months.
Recent big falls in unemployment mean the rate is now 7.1%, but many of the jobs created are low-waged, part-time or on zero hours contracts.
Unemployment has shown a big fall in the last three months and now stands at 7.1% of the working population.
But coverage of the issue has focused on the likely result of this fall on interest rates.
Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has said he will not raise interest rates, which have been stuck at 0.5% since 2009, until unemployment drops to 7%.
It is now looking likely that this will be very soon, and newspapers and news websites have covered this issue obsessively, being concerned about its effect on house prices and the cost of business borrowing.
Unemployment among Britain's ethnic minority communities has continued to rise even as overall worklessness has gone down.
This is the finding of The Guardian, which shows through a datablog how the recent falls in unemployment have not been shared equally.
Ethnic minorities have consistently been more likely to be out of work than the white UK majority since large-scale immigration began, but the fact that the gap is growing is cause for concern.
Unemployment in the UK has seen a big fall to 7.6% of the workforce, its lowest rate in three years.
It dropped by 48,000 between July and September to stand at 2.47 million according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), its lowest level for nearly three years.
But wages still lag behind inflation even as more people receive them, going up only 0.7% over the last year.
Unemployment has fallen by 18,000 to 2.49 million people over the last three months, while the number claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by 41,700 to 1.35 million.
Joblessness now stands at 7.7% of the UK workforce.
There was a small fall in long-term unemployment, but no change in the number of young unemployed people even as the number who are economically inactive rose 22,000 to 2.66 million.
