Irish jobs market may have stabilised, report suggests

Declines in the numbers of openings, professionals seeking new roles and the rate at which wages were rising during the final quarter of 2023 all suggested a stabilisation of the Irish jobs market, according to global recruitment firm Morgan McKinley.

In its latest quarterly employment monitor, published on Wednesday, the firm suggests that while demand for particular skills remains strong across a number of sectors including tech and financial services, the overall number of openings declined by 18 per cent over the course of 2023.

The legal sector was one of those impacted towards the end of 2023, a development it says was linked to drop in vacancies in London. As fewer solicitors left firms to work England, it found, there were fewer roles needing to be backfilled in Irish offices.

More generally, it found there was a more cautious approach being taken by staff to leaving jobs due to the uncertainly of the economic outlook.

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The company also found that employers are continuing to edge towards requiring their staff to spend more of their week working on-site, another indication, it is suggested, of the longer-term normalisation in progress.

Over the course of 2023 there were “significant adjustments in Ireland’s job market, marked on the one hand by resilience and on the other by strategic shifts in various industries”, according to Morgan McKinley’s Global FDI Director, Trayc Keevans.

“Financial services, technology and life sciences demonstrated ongoing strength, in spite of some significant cutbacks by large-scale employers in the digital platforms sector.”

The implementation of the EU cybersecurity regulations ensured high demand for specialist skills within the sector, a trend she believes will persist over the coming 12 months.

In technology, meanwhile, “there was a noticeable increase in demand both for permanent and contract positions, driven by end-of-year budget approvals and a proactive approach to securing top talent for 2024″.

“Despite the knock-on effects of the slowdown in hiring by London law firms, “skills in commercial contracts and employment legal advice remained in demand”, she said, “but there was a slowdown in the demand for property lawyers”.

“The life sciences sector experienced a moderate decrease in demand for permanent positions, with a focus on contract-based hiring aligned with budget considerations for the new year. We are expecting to see an uplift in hiring as several large pharmaceutical companies have expansion projects pipelined for 2024.”

Across a range of sectors, meanwhile, Ms Keevans suggested the stabilisation of the market has eased the pressure on firms looking to recruit to significantly increase pay or offer quite so much flexibility as had been the case.

“Despite some regional variations and increases in specific roles, the overall stability in salaries reflects a cautiously evolving job market. Many organisations are not seeing the need to significantly increase salaries to attract and retain talent. Additionally, we’ve seen a notable trend where employers are increasingly seeking more on-site presence from employees, signalling a shift from the prevalent hybrid working model to a more balanced dynamic between remote and on-site work.”

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