The latest Morgan McKinley Irish Employment Monitor for October 2012 shows that professional job vacancies in Ireland have increased by 4pc year-on-year, with not much change expected in the market until 2013.
A total of 8,686 professional jobs were available in Ireland during October 2012, representing a slight 2pc dip from the previous month. The number of professionals entering the jobs market also showed year-on-year growth of 2pc, rising to 10,295.
“It is encouraging to see an uplift in professional job vacancies available compared to October ’11, particularly against the backdrop of the harsh economic climate and the impending austerity budget,” said Karen O’Flaherty, chief operations officer for Morgan McKinley, who explained that the month-on-month decline of 2pc is an expected fall off from September’s figures.
“The majority of hiring continues to come from multinationals across niche disciplines and skill sets, such as software development, multilingual professionals across accountancy, sales and customer service, qualified financial advisers and those with restructuring and debt-recovery experience,” she added.
O’Flaherty predicted little deviation from current figures until the new year, attributing a low rate of hiring across the indigenous SME sector to the difficulty in securing credit from financial institutions. But activity in the IT start-up sector paints a more promising picture.
“The Dublin Web Summit showcased a record number of IT start-up businesses and saw foreign investors come to Ireland,” said O’Flaherty. “These and other large-scale business networking events, coupled with further foreign direct investment, encourage positive sentiment for business and hiring in 2013. Anecdotal evidence suggests employers are optimistic about future hiring plans.”
