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U.S. unemployment has stayed stubbornly high for the past couple of years, and is expected to remain at around 8.2 percent on Friday when government experts publish new data showing the jobless rate for July.

While the job picture in the overall economy seems stalled, a survey of a couple hundred recruiters by the MRINetwork shows things are improving for certain highly-skilled white-collar workers.

Dave Campeas, who heads an MRINetwork office in New Jersey, says companies can no longer leave key positions unfilled, and are moving more quickly to hire replacements.

“Mostly in areas where you have functional positions, positions like accounting, financial services, and IT, sales and marketing, where it is not necessarily industry-specific, it is skills-specific, the job market is significantly better than it was.”

Campeas spoke to VOA via Skype. He also says the survey shows more people are willing to resign positions to take new jobs, creating some openings.

MRINetwork operates 700 offices in 35 nations.