There was a 15pc month-on-month rise in professional job vacancies coming on the market in Ireland during May, a survey by Premier Group has found.
The Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor showed that professional vacancies in Ireland rose from 5,333 in April to 6,117 in May.
In fact, May 2010 saw the greatest rise in new jobs coming to the market since October 2008, which represents a 20-month high.
In year-on-year terms, professional job vacancies rose by 33pc in May 2010 compared to May 2009.
Premier Group said it had seen an increase in jobs activity across the finance, office support, technical and IT sectors in May.
“We are pleased to see strong and positive growth in hiring within the professional employment market in May, which registered the highest level of new job opportunities so far this year,” said Brian Murphy, CEO of Premier Group in Ireland.
“We were particularly pleased with the hiring activity in the IT sector, especially with senior appointments within financial and professional services and in the gaming sector. May also saw a significant number of medium to high-level IT jobs becoming available in the development and design market. There has also been a significant jump in recent months in the demand for application support candidates driven by the growth of cloud computing.
“The employment market in Ireland, which was severely challenged this time last year, is slowly moving in the right direction. Recent economic issues in the Eurozone however, may impact business activity across Europe. This gives us limited visibility of the potential for growth in business and recruitment in Ireland over the next few months,” Murphy added.
“It’s good to see talented professionals remaining active in the jobs market in May. The number of professionals looking for work has remained fairly similar to the previous two months, while at the same time job opportunities have risen for a second consecutive month in May.”