The latest Morgan McKinley Irish Employment Monitor for May 2013 shows a marked increase in available professional job opportunities year-on-year, and the same level decrease in the number of professionals seeking employment.
The Irish jobs market tracker shows that there were 9,434 professional jobs on the market in May 2013, a 5pc increase from April and a 20pc increase from May 2012.
The number of professionals seeking employment rose 2pc from April to 10,135, but this figure also represents a 20pc decrease from the same period last year – a positive indicator that professional job opportunities are growing and that people are securing employment.
“Though modest, this [5pc] increase represents the second consecutive month in 2013 of positive jobs growth,” said Karen O’Flaherty, chief operations officer at Morgan McKinley. “The 20pc increase compared to May 2012 in the number of professional vacancies is also an encouraging sign that the jobs market continues to show steady growth from a changeable position in late 2012 and early 2013 rather than a dramatic increase in the number of vacancies.”
Employers seeking IT, security and multilingual professionals
O’Flaherty believes hiring activity is being driven by multinational and exporting companies. “Continued activity in inward investment saw in excess of 300 new jobs announced for ICT, engineering, sales, HR, legal and finance professionals,” she said. “Within IT and technology demand remains robust for professionals with web, mobile, digital and software development experience. This trend reflects the diverse positions available across a variety of sectors for IT professionals.”
O’Flaherty also says that security professionals in the finance sector and multilingual workers with technical skills are also in demand. “In the financial services area we have seen an increase in the number of compliance and anti-money laundering roles at mid to senior level. Candidates with a strong operations and project management background together with regulatory knowledge also remain in high demand. Throughout May 2013 we noted an increased demand for risk professionals for both insurance and banking sectors,” she commented.
“Many business operations continue to recruit candidates with multilingual skills and we have seen the emergence of inside sales roles coupled with challenging language requirements such as Swedish, Catalan and Dutch. Equally those with multiple languages who also have strong IT, order management or supply chain experience are in high demand.”