Survey shows job vacancies on the rise in all sectors

JOB vacancies rose again in November, reflecting the continuing strong growth in the economy, according to the latest FÁS/ESRI survey.

However, the long term outlook is less positive with only the services sector reporting positive employment expectations in the months ahead.

The strong state of the economy, meanwhile, has meant some sectors of the economy are still finding it hard to fill available job slots.

These include vacancies for quantity surveyors in construction; managers, sale personnel and technicians in industry and sales staff in the retail sector.

In the period under review, the construction and industrial sectors were the key drivers of what was, overall, a modest increase in demand, which saw increased numbers of vacancies in all sectors.

Having decreased in October, the percentage of construction sector firms reporting vacancies increased from 5% to 15% in the month.

Across industry, the increase was 19% while the rise in openings in the retail sector rose by a modest 4% over the period.

In the services sector, vacancies rose by 1% to 16%.

Overall, economy-wide vacancies rose slightly, with the percentage of firms reporting vacancies across all sectors increasing to 13%.

The survey also showed that there was no change in the Net Employment Expectations indicator for all sectors.

That stayed in negative territory at minus 1% for November.

According to the conductors of the survey, the minus 1% of employers anticipating a fall in employment levels over the coming months is slightly higher than those predicting an increase, suggesting some negative bias on the employment front in the coming months.

Furthermore, the employment expectations of those in construction fell to their lowest level in almost four years, with the Net Employment Expectations indicator for the sector falling by three percentage point to minus 12%.

Industry sector employers’ employment expectations improved on the levels recorded in October’s survey: the Net Employment Expectations indicator for the sector increased by three percentage points, but the indicator continued to remain negative at minus 4%.

Following an increase in the previous two months, the expectations of retail employers regarding future employment levels in their firms deteriorated in November.