Gee,
It's a difficult time right now for jobs and the market will become more difficult in the coming months.
There is the "credit crunch" and associated downturn in business to consider and outsourcing of work to the emerging markets in developing countries. Additionally, if you are a senior admin then the pool in which you are fishing is quite small and very competitive.
My own post is very specialized, but not immune to external threats, so I have decided that I will take myself off to college again to brush up on my skills and maybe study for a higher business qualification. Watch out world, Raindance is coming!
Probably one of the best things you could do right now to ensure future employability, apart from extending technical skills, is to learn a foreign language such as Chinese.
My experience with employment agencies has been quite negative on the whole. People are very pleasant and efficient and put me forward for jobs, but I have never secured a post other than through applying in response to advertisements. I'One of the most peculiar approaches I had from an employment agency occurred about ten years ago. I registered with an agency and discussed my job criteria with me, including salary level. Apart from my very first admin job, I have worked only one-to-one at CEO level, so that was a criterion. What did the agency do? They offered to put me forward for a post working for four people (not director level) at a salary 25 per cent lower than the one I was getting at the time, and in an office with no natural light. Bwahaha. You couldn't make up this story! The funniest thing was that the consultant at the agency couldn't understand why I wasn't interested in this "fantastic" post!
