Recruitment companies predict another boom year as demand for staff in finance industry increases, writes Gabrielle Monaghan.

CPL Resources, Ireland's largest recruitment agency, surprised stock analysts last month when it announced that rising demand for IT, telecom and finance staff helped boost its net profit by 77 per cent.

The company is set for another boom this year as experts predict that Ireland's recruitment market will continue to flourish in 2006.

"I'm expecting to see growth in the market continue," said Anne Heraty, the chief executive of Dublin-based CPL.

"I don't expect recruitment in manufacturing to be as strong as in services, but all the quality jobs are in the services sector."

Irish employment rose about 5 per cent last year, compared with an increase of 3 per cent in 2004, led by an increase in demand for services staff and faster economic growth, according to Davy Stockbrokers, CPL's broker.

As a result, the number of jobs advertised in national daily and Sunday newspapers in 2005 was 2 per cent higher than in 2004 and 11 per cent higher than in 2003, a recent review of the jobs market by Bank of Ireland Business Banking showed.

The number of people on the live register fell by more than 1,000 in December, according to the Central Statistics Office, suggesting that Ireland's unemployment rate remains one of the lowest in the EU.

Gross national product will likely rise faster in Ireland this year and next than in any of the other 11 euro-zone countries, Davy forecast.

Indeed, research conducted by Deutsche Bank found that of 34 countries surveyed, Ireland, along with Spain and the US, will have the fastest-growing economies between 2006 and 2020.

"Demand for new labour in services is underpinned by two main factors - the low level of real interest rates, and Ireland's competitive corporation tax rate," said Alan Daly, an analyst at Davy Stockbrokers.

"These conditions will continue for the foreseeable future."

The biggest increase in vacancies recorded last year by Bank of Ireland was in the professional sector, with the number of advertisements placed in newspapers rising 14 per cent from 2004.

The financial services, IT, telecommunications, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors will provide the best opportunities for educated jobseekers this year, Heraty said.

Those sectors, which generate most of CPL's income, helped the company increase its revenues by 34 per cent to €66.3 million in the six months through to December.

With over 50,000 people employed in financial services, and a further 25,000 employed in the industry's support services, it's not surprising that finance has become the buzzword for the Irish recruitment market.

In the funds industry alone, the number of people employed rose by about 1,000 in 2005 to 7,000. More than 60 per cent of European hedge funds are now administered in Ireland.

Financial services group Citco last week said that it would add 250 new jobs in Cork, bringing to 850 the number employed by its Irish operations.

Part of Citco's investment will go towards opening a second hedge-fund administration centre.

"In financial services, there will be a lot of back-office work, especially because of the expansion by the banks," Heraty said.

"The banks are very focused now on customer relationship management and wealth management.

"These are all very good jobs."

The IT sector is still experiencing "good growth," helped by the arrival in Ireland of technology companies such as internet search firm Google and online store Amazon, Heraty said.

Google announced in December that it would create up to 650 new jobs at its European headquarters in Dublin over the next two to three years.

CPL, founded just 16 years ago, doubled the number of recruitment consultants it employs in its pharmaceutical division in 2005 as more foreign companies set up shop in Ireland to benefit from a lower tax rate and a skilled workforce.

Demand is especially high in the pharmaceutical sector for engineers and scientists, Heraty said.

Two investments in the industry were announced in the last two weeks alone: Amgen, the world's biggest biotechnology company, said it would create 1,100 jobs in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, by 2010.

The same week, the European Commission gave the go-ahead to a €48.3 million Government grant for a €530 million investment by US drugmaker Centocor in Ringaskiddy. Ireland already produces 12 of the top 25 best-selling drugs in the world. Another trend set to continue in 2006 is a shortage of skilled candidates to fill recruitment agencies' books.

The lack of talent in some sectors is leading to competition between companies to attract and retain staff, and prompting recruiters to look outside Ireland.

"We're sourcing people all over the world," Heraty said.

"We do lot of recruitment in northern Europe and from the accession states, especially Poland and the Czech Republic. We recruit for some specialist roles outside the EU when we cannot find the staff closer to home."

While the professional sector offers high-paying jobs, Heraty acknowledges that the greater volume of jobs advertised in the recruitment pages pay between €25,000 and €35,000 a year.