Earlier this week it was announced that unemployment has risen to a 17-year high, reaching the dizzying heights of 2.68 million - of which a staggering 1.04 million are young people.

Depressing? Yes. News? Not really.

It’s a sorry state of affairs, but we’ve become so used to bad news when it comes to the job market that we’re no longer remotely surprised about such announcements - we almost can’t remember a time when the news wasn’t bookended by financial scaremongering.

But fear not, studentbeans.com is here - we have a much happier way of looking at things, and the good news is that IT’S NOT ALL BAD.

While in a lot of cases it is harder than ever to find work, there are a number of industries that are beginning to show signs of improvement.

Here is a list of the sectors that have shown the highest annual increases in job opportunities - the figures were taken from recruitment firm Reed’s Job Index. The percentage indicates the annual increase in job opportunities from 2010 to 2011.

• Motoring and automotive - 82%

• Engineering - 60%

• Hospitality and catering - 43%

• Leisure and tourism - 43%

• IT and telecoms - 41%

• Energy - 39%

• Construction and property - 35%

• Qualified accountancy - 29%

• Estate agency - 28%

• Charity and voluntary - 25%

• Human resources - 25%

Of course, it’s not all smiles and new jobs - there are certain sectors that have got even harder to get into.

Education and social care showed large annual drops in job opportunities, while relatively low skilled jobs such as customer service and secretarial opportunities fell significantly.

From 2010 to 2011 the number of applications per graduate job rose drastically from 10 to 19, though this is still lower than the national average of 23 applications per job.

Yes, there is bad news, and lots of it - but at times like this it’s the people who spot the good news and make the most of it that reap the benefits .

• Click here to find out the average graduate salary by course

Tags: Employability , Career advice