Job vacancies drop by 25% as hiring surge slows

Jobs vacancies around the country have fallen by 25% in the past three months, latest figures show. 

The Jobs Index published by Irishjobs.ie for the second quarter of the year shows a return to a more settled jobs vacancy market than in recent years, as the rate that vacancies are declining slows to 4%.

The latest figures appear to show that the post Covid pandemic boom has now slowed. 

Job vacancies fell by 25% Year-on-Year, reflecting the hiring surge the Irish job market experienced in the same period twelve months ago and which began to slow as the year progressed. Job vacancies are now largely in line with pre-Covid Q2 2019 levels (+1%), indicating the labour market has stabilised. 

The tech industry, which enjoyed a boom in recent years, has particularly fallen back. This sector has seen a number of jobs loss announcements, with many multinationals admitting that they had over-hired during the Covid pandemic period. 

The catering sector, accounting for a wide range of hospitality services, generated the largest number of job vacancies last quarter - 14%, followed by management - 9%, the medical professionals & healthcare -7%, and IT - 6%. While the IT sector is still the fourth largest source of jobs nationally, data shows that the sector has been on a downward trajectory since the third quarter of 2022. The latest figures show a fallback in both yearly (-30%) and quarterly vacancies (-13%), with the sector moving toward a pre-pandemic Q2 2019 vacancy level.

However,  long-term health of the job market across sectors is generally robust, according to Irishjobs: vacancies in 23 of the 39 sectors analysed remain above their pre-COVID Q2 2019 levels. 

Fully Remote/Working-from-home vacancies have experienced a strong rebound after three successive quarterly falls, indicating remote working may be stabilising as a long-term practise in the Irish workplace. 9 in 10 of these fully remote vacancies are offered across urban centres in Ireland by employers in Dublin (79%), Limerick (7%), and Cork (4%).

The distribution of vacancies across urban centres indicates that remote working in Ireland is strongly driven by the pressures of commuting into large metropolitan centres, those behind the figures note. As inflation continues to impact costs, fully remote openings are likely to remain a viable option for employers and employees alike to offset increased costs.

In addition to the Index, IrishJobs commissioned research on attitudes and preferences to jobseeking in Ireland. With over 500 responses, research showed that 27% of respondents are actively looking for a new job.

Respondents ranked Higher salary (22%), Improve work-life balance (10%) and Jobs fits with higher purpose in life (6%) as the top reasons motivating their use of jobs platforms. The top two preferences remain unchanged from the previous quarter, signalling that the rising cost-of-living continues to have a strong impact on job applicants.

Orla Moran, Managing Director of IrishJobs and The Stepstone Group Ireland, said: "While economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures persist, the Irish economy continued to grow in a robust and resilient manner in Q2. The jobs market remains strong, with the unemployment rate reaching a historically low rate of 3.8% in May and remaining there in June. The latest release of our Jobs Index shows that the jobs market is more settled than in recent years, following a period of volatility.

"Jobs vacancies across most sectors appear robust and in a period of normalisation as they experience little to no change in vacancy levels on a quarterly basis, although a tightening is evident in the Banking, IT, Science and Travel sectors. Research showed a trend in remote working, as fully remote vacancies experienced a quarterly increase following a period of three successive quarterly falls. The location of 9 in 10 of these vacancies in the urban centres of Dublin, Limerick and Cork suggest difficulties commuting into large cities is impacting employer homeworking policies.

"For jobseekers, the rising cost-of-living and inflationary pressures continue to have an impact on jobseeker preferences. For the second quarter running, a higher salary is ranked by applicants as the most important criteria when looking for a new job. It is pivotal that employers recognise the significance of these pressures in their hiring and recruitment strategies to attract talent in a competitive labour market,” Ms Moran said.