In this year’s review of jobs announcements, Connacht experienced a marked decrease compared to last year, while almost half of all newly created roles were based in Dublin.
As the year draws to a close, we in Careers have decided to crunch the numbers on every jobs announcement we wrote this year to see if any interesting trends emerged.
In total, we highlighted 14,834 jobs that were created this year, spread over 152 announcements. It averages out at 98 jobs per announcement or, alternatively, 1,236 jobs per month.
Unsurprisingly, Dublin was the biggest winner this year. 6,998 jobs were created in the capital, which works out at 47pc of all jobs announced. Belfast also took up a considerable chunk, with 10pc of all new jobs being based in the Northern Irish city.
Cork and Limerick presented with similar numbers, with 7.5pc and 7pc of all jobs announced, respectively.
Timing is essential
Our natural associations with spring and creation manifested in the timing of jobs announcements this year. May was the most bountiful month jobs-wise with a total of 2,200 roles created, followed by February, which brought with it 2,143 new positions.
In third place comes October, with 2,130 jobs announced during the month. The timing somewhat implies that despite the amount of technological progression humanity has made, people are subconsciously driven by agrarian scheduling.
The big hitters
Some of the largest jobs announcements of the year bulked out the 12-month total, with 2,915 of the year’s jobs being spread over just six announcements.
In first place, we had a stunning 650 jobs revealed in Cork by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, 450 of which were construction positions, as part of a €300m expansion.
Tech behemoth Microsoft provided 600 new positions in Dublin, placing it firmly in second place. Job-search engine Indeed announced a 500-strong expansion, also in Dublin, over the next two years.
Tied for fourth place were two companies that created 400 jobs apiece: First Derivatives, which revealed graduate roles in Dublin and Newry; and Northern Trust, which announced a large expansion in Limerick. Finally, fifth place went to IT services player Version 1 with the creation of 365 jobs, one for every day of the year.
At a glance: Ulster job creation remains stable
A total of 2,078 jobs were announced in Ulster, 1,505 of which were based in Belfast (72pc). This is roughly consistent with the number of jobs reported last year, with one key difference being that a smaller percentage of the jobs were concentrated in Belfast (85pc in 2016).
It’s heartening to see industry become a little decentralised, and it bodes well for regional development that the good fortune is a little more spread out across the country.
A significant decrease in jobs in Connacht
Connacht had a good year on the job creation front in 2016 – more than 2,000 jobs were created, 60pc of which were in Galway, and the remainder were generously spread around Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim.
This year, however, there were only five jobs announcements made exclusively in Connacht, all of which were jobs based in Galway.
The most significant was the news of 200 roles for IT professionals created by financial services company MetLife. The firm announced the positions as part of a larger update about its intention to create a new technology campus in Galway.
There were three jobs announcements that revealed positions to be split between Dublin and Galway: OpenJaw, SAP and Storm Technologies. It is difficult to be sure how many of these roles would actually end up going to Connacht and, for that reason, they were discounted from the final provincial tally.
Software firm SL Controls also revealed 40 roles across its four Irish offices in Dublin, Sligo, Galway and Limerick. Again, as the breakdown by area was unavailable, it was difficult to count this within the general dataset. While the announcement provides some hope for non-Galway areas in Connacht, it still is a rather disappointing result for the West.
Munster gets some big wins, but lags compared to 2016
There was a grand total of 2,443 new roles created in Munster in 2017. While this is certainly nothing to sniff at, it comes in 3,051 jobs shy of the amount reported in 2016.
Cork and Limerick dominated in terms of numbers, with the rebel county seeing 1,110 jobs, which totals 45pc of all Munster jobs. Limerick follows closely behind with 1,055 jobs based there, or 43pc.
Cork was home to the largest jobs announcement of the entire year, with the aforementioned Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Limerick also had some significant news, such as the 300 new positions revealed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
This is pretty consistent with Munster’s general reputation as a vibrant pharmaceuticals hub within Ireland.
Leinster: Dublin dominates, but Dundalk and Drogheda deliver
Rather unsurprisingly, 84pc of the 8,326 jobs announced in Leinster were based in Dublin.
While overall this is 706 jobs less than what was announced in 2016, it’s heartening to see that the percentage of jobs based in Dublin has decreased slightly from 88pc in 2016.
There were some big announcements in Dundalk and Drogheda, which gained 4.8pc and 4.5pc of all Leinster jobs announced, respectively.
Pharmaceuticals group Wasdell revealed plans to construct a new base in Dundalk, and with it 300 new positions.
In Drogheda, global payments company YapStone announced a significant expansion in the Louth town and the creation of 200 roles.