With the almighty recession crunching down on employment figures - employees are starting to feel lucky that they have a job, rather than looking onwards and upwards at career progression. But that is exactly what successful and enterprising career-minded individuals are doing. You won't find the CEOs or tomorrow sitting around waiting for bad news to arrive this afternoon.

So, staying pro-active and continually seeking new employment opportunities seems like a no-brainer, but how many of us workers at the moment are actually looking for a job? Common excuses will be "The market has just dried up", and my favourite "With the jobless rates at all time highs, I'll have no chance".

While these arguements are reasonable - they're not sufficient to justify halting your personal and professional development. Recession or not, - 1,000s of people are being recruited everyday for senior positions in companies, and you could be one of them!

Would it surprise you if I said that recruiters actually prefer employing those who are currently in a job, rather than those who have been unemployed for even a small amount of time?

** 5 Reasons Why You'll Never Get Promoted **

1. You feel guilty in competing against the desperate unemployed.

This point is ridiculous when you think about it. There is nothing morally wrong with grabbing a job from an unemployed citizen, because when you move into a position, you leave a vacancy behind you! Simply moving around between jobs doesn't effect the status quo.

2. You have become defensive, not offensive.

All career-climbing business people have succeeded because they pursue opportunities head on. If your focus switches to simply defending your position, you will quickly lose out in the rat race.

3. You justify your lack of effort by the difficulty of the challenge.

Its true that winning a job interview now will be harder than ever before, but since when was landing a good role an easy task? By now you should be used to "80 applicants for each position", so does 200 applicants per available place really make a difference? If you're the best, its likely you're still the best when you add redundant workers into the pool of competition.

4. You feel relaxed now that your peers aren't climbing either.

This is a rather dangerous mindset. Your peers, (if they're as competitive as mine), will probably not make public their plans to search for new job vacancies until they secure a position. Thus justifying your inaction with theirs is a rather risky strategy. When the upturn comes, and your peers suddenly get promoted due to their own secret plans - you'll only have yourself to blame.

5. You forget that money talks as much in a recession as out of one.

If you have a brilliant skill set that can create value and profits for an organisation - this stands true during a recession in most cases. Many employees feel like they should re-word their strengths to reflect a character who can 'cut costs and keep the company alive' when in reality - managers are still looking for people who will drive up sales and profits just like in the good times.