Jobs market remains weak but worst may be over

The latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey has found that 13 per cent of Irish employers expect to reduce staff numbers between October and December this year. The survey, which measures 620 Irish employers' intentions to increase or decrease their workforces over the next three months, also reveals that Ireland's net employment outlook for the next three months is -8 per cent, among the weakest hiring forecasts globally with Spain (-8 per cent) and Romania (-11 per cent). However, despite the gloomy outlook, employers in 10 of 11 industry sectors and three of five regions report stronger quarter-over-quarter forecasts. With the exception of the pharmaceutical industry sector, where the outlook is a flat 0 per cent, negative hiring activity is reported by employers in every other Irish industry sector. Employers in the construction sector (-23 per cent) report Ireland's weakest outlook, although the hiring pace is expected to improve by a moderate five and 4 percentage points quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, respectively. Employers in Leinster (-14 per cent) forecast the country's weakest regional hiring pace. The Irish labour market is the least pessimistic in Munster (-5 per cent) where the outlook improves six percentage points both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. Krissie Davies, managing director of Manpower Ireland, said: "The pace of workforce reductions appears to have peaked in the first three-quarters of this year. While the Irish labour market is predicted to continue to weaken with 13 per cent of Irish employers envisaging letting staff go, there is finally some evidence, albeit tentative, to suggest that the rate of deterioration may be easing. However, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that the numbers signing on are likely to rise in coming months, as employers continue to adjust and align payrolls to the current difficult business climate." Employers in all five Irish regions have reported negative hiring intentions for the forthcoming quarter. However, quarter-over-quarter comparisons reveal that the net employment outlooks have slightly improved in three of the five regions. Meanwhile, less pessimistically, the IrishJobs.ie online jobs index for August reveals a three per cent increase on the previous month. August figures are positive overall and are 10 per cent up on the index which was benchmarked in April - this is the highest increase since the index was launched. These figures suggest continued stability and confidence in the market with employment opportunities on the up. The jobs index monitors live and current jobs advertised by companies across the five leading recruitments websites in Ireland. Since IrishJobs.ie began the monthly Jobs Index in April, there has been a 10 per cent increase in jobs overall. Galway comes out on top with a 19 per cent increase, followed by Cork with a 10 per cent increase and Dublin with seven per cent. However, at the other end of the scale, Longford remains bottom of the list with (-45 per cent), followed by Laois (-43 per cent) and Offaly at (-41 per cent). Since the start of the IrishJobs.ie index this year, the top five sectors in terms of advertised jobs online are sales; production, manufacturing and materials; hotel and catering; retailing, wholesaling and purchasing, and customer services, call centres and languages. Conversely, the sectors that have been performing poorly since the index was launched are telecoms, public sector, IT, science, pharmaceuticals and food and accountancy and finance. The IrishJobs.ie index measures jobs advertised by companies across the five leading online recruitment sites in Ireland. It provides a month-by-month analysis of the Irish jobs market broken down by sector and county for both employers and jobseekers.