A SPECIALIST recruitment website which was set up by a North-East man while he was unemployed is now receiving more than 10,000 hits every month.

Jobtimise.co.uk, the UK's only site dedicated exclusively to North-East jobs online, was created by Kristin Atkinson in March last year while he was looking for work.

Now the Sunderland-based site receives more than 10,000 hits each month and has 2,500 registered jobseekers in the region.

Mr Atkinson, who has a background in IT sales, said he was inspired to set up the site after his own difficulties finding a job in the region.

"I was using the internet to search for jobs, and found that we did not have a regional website solely for North-East vacancies," he said.

"It meant that I was spending hours online scouring hundreds of different national recruitment sites and restricting my search to the North-East area.

"That's when I came up with the idea of developing a site that brings regional employers into direct contact with local jobseekers."

The site, which was created with support from Sunderland City Council's business investment team, now counts businesses including Hays Travel, Jennings Ford and Benfield Motors as clients.

Cheryl Jones, business development assistant at the council, said: "Kristin has developed an innovative business model and has some extremely creative ideas as to how to grow his company.

"We are certain he will build on his current achievements and wish him every success for the future."