75% of firms to recruit next year

THREE out of four employers plan to recruit next year but close to three quarters of those unemployed plan to look abroad for work.

When asked where they would look, 38% said they would seek employment in Britain, 13% in other western European countries, 13% in Canada, 12% in Australia and 7% in the US.

This is according to figures released by recruitment firm Hays, which also shows that the number of people seeking alternative employment has risen 25%.

Almost half of unemployed professionals feel positive about their chances of securing employment in Ireland next year.

And managers are confident in their own businesses, despite increased concerns about the wider economic environment, according to the results of the latest business sentiment survey from IBEC.

Reacting to the survey, which measures business confidence under a range of indices, IBEC said jobs must be the main policy priority for Government in 2011.

IBEC chief economist Fergal O’Brien said: “Managers’ confidence in the performance of their own businesses improved to +13 in Q4 from zero balance in Q3 and the forward-looking index remained positive at +7 in Q4. This indicates that growth is likely in 2011 and is consistent with our view that the economy will expand next year.”

Managing director of Hays, Richard Eardley said: “It’s great to observe such a positive attitude to employment at ground level.

“Recent headlines would suggest the country is heading downwards, but our experience is that people are very definitely hiring again and candidates have more confidence with regards to moving jobs.”

More employers plan for pay increases rather than cuts next year. While 33% imposed cuts this year, just 10% plan to in 2011. Also, 12% are planning to make pay increases while twice as many employers plan to pay out bonuses in 2011 than did so in 2010.

One in five employees have had an increase in their salary in the last 12 months with more than half of those seeing increases of 20% and above. Also 37% did not experience a reduction to their salary in 2010.

Unemployed respondents were asked if they would take a cut in their previous pay level to secure a job and 83% said they would. This ranged from 36% accepting up to a 10% cut to 4% willing to accept a salary reduction of two-thirds.

“The job market has become extremely competitive and people realise that if they have been out of work for an extended period of time they will need something else to give them an edge over other candidates,” said Mr Eardley.

Half of the unemployed respondents said that they were attending training courses to enhance their skills. A further 23% intend on taking up such courses.

There was a stronger level of optimism among export-led companies surveyed.

Overall one in two employers said they feel more confident about their organisation’s stability and potential for growth than they did 12 months ago.

Hays surveyed 242 employers and 1,215 employees across Ireland.