The Dundrum Town Centre has helped job creation get off to a "buoyant start" this year, according to the latest Bank of Ireland jobs index.

Retail has proven to be a very busy sector, with the new Dundrum centre feeding into the figures, said the bank.

Almost 40,000 jobs were advertised in the national daily and Sunday newspapers in the first two months of the year, according to the Bank of Ireland, which tracks the pattern of vacancies as part of its survey.

Recruitment has been fuelled mainly by the private sector with public sector recruitment falling off, most notably in February, it said. "In total, 19,196 recruitment advertisements were recorded in February, a 1 per cent increase over the same month last year. The findings of this month's job index indicate that the momentum around job creation in 2004, as evidenced by the recently published Quarterly National Household Survey, is set to gain pace this year," it said.

Cathal Muckian, director, Bank of Ireland business banking said: "A buoyant recruitment market is a strong indicator of business strength and based on the findings of the job index over the first two month's of the year we can expect to see significant business activity throughout 2005".