‘10,000 fewer jobs’ than a year ago

THERE are 10,000 fewer vacancies in the professional job market than a year ago, it emerged yesterday.

However, while employers may currently be hiring far fewer new staff than last year, according to recruitment consultancy Premier Group, the professional jobs market does show signs of steadying.

In its first monthly Irish employment monitor, Premier has studied the professional jobs market by tracking new job vacancies and candidate availability.

It found that the number of new professional job vacancies which became available during April 2009 fell by 70% from 15,307 in April 2008 to just 4,532 in April 2009. However, there was an increase of 6% compared with the previous month when there were 4,266 vacancies. That was the second consecutive month-on-month increase this year.

It also found the number of Irish professionals who began looking for a new role was down 51% on April 2008 and 29% versus March 2009 as worries about the health of the economy deterred people from changing jobs. Brian Murphy, managing director of Premier Group in Ireland, said: “Needless to say, the past 12 months have been very challenging for employment in general across Ireland.

“Obviously, recruitment activity within the professional space is still at significantly reduced levels compared with a year ago however, the steep decline in job volumes, which was apparent during the second half of last year, appears to have steadied over the past few months,” said Mr Murphy.

“Perhaps this is a sign some semblance of confidence is slowly being restored to the professional jobs market but, given the volatility experienced last year, we will have to wait and see how things pan out.” He said the sizeable gap between the number of new candidates and vacancies highlights that the jobs market for professionals in Ireland is still extremely competitive.

“Currently, confidence levels amongst candidates is so low that those individuals who feel they have job security are choosing to stay where they are rather than enter into a difficult market. It certainly remains a wait-and-see situation.”