Professional job vacancies rose 9% in September

The number of professional job vacancies in Ireland in September increased by 9 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The increase in August was less significant, bumping up by only 2 per cent against the backdrop of an economy with almost full employment.

According to the monthly employment monitor from recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley, the number of professionals seeking jobs, meanwhile, increased by 13 per cent.

“There is demand across multiple sectors for professional skills in all main business and operations management functions which reflects an overall sense of confidence across the economy in spite of the various geopolitical and economic issues facing Ireland,” said Karen O’Flaherty, Morgan McKinley’s chief operating officer.

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A number of areas were identified in the report as having continued buoyancy. Particularly strong sectors included science, on the back of growth in the food industry; financial services, aligned to Brexit; and data compliance as businesses await the implementation of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Information technology, too, remains a “powerhouse of the Irish economy”, driven by demand for engineering, cloud computing and digital talent.

In regional terms, Ms O’Flaherty suggests Dublin and Cork are operating at a pace higher than other regions, however, “the gap is narrowing as more and more professional jobseekers specify that they are seeking career opportunities in the regions.”

“Increasingly, multinational and indigenous employers are moving to establish offshoot operations to cater for this need and to fill vacancies more quickly. This is very noticeable in areas like financial services where the south-east, for example, has seen a cluster of financial services companies expanding and establishing operations,” she said.

Morgan McKinley’s report is compiled using the company’s own records of new permanent job vacancies, while statistics for the market as a whole are derived using the company’s own market share.