Sluggish jobs market set to continue

The jobs market across most sectors is set to remain sluggish over the last three months of the year.

Consultancy firm Manpower, in its latest labour market survey, found there was an employment outlook of -7% for the last quarter of the year, with most employers in the country providing a downbeat assessment of hiring conditions.

Manpower Ireland managing director Krissie Davies said: “Unsurprisingly, the overall survey results for Quarter 4 2012 are disappointing. The exports sector, which has been leading the recovery, is now challenged by the weakening demand in Ireland’s main trading markets. The Irish labour market continues to be impacted by market uncertainty elsewhere — even beyond European borders — and this is hindering any meaningful recovery.”

However, the outlook in the manufacturing sector was 2%, which suggests there will be a marginal increase in employment levels. Construction, wholesale and retail, agriculture, and forestry and fishing all had negative outlooks.

The report said: “Pharmaceutical sector employers report mixed hiring intentions with an outlook of -2% representing a considerable decline from +7% last quarter. The finance and business services sector outlook stands at a sluggish -6%, down 2 and 6 percentage points quarter- over-quarter and year- over-year, respectively.”

Dublin and Connaught had the bleakest employment outlooks while Muster and Leinster showed signs of stabilisation.

Six hundred employers across five regions and 11 industry sectors were asked whether they intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce over the next three months. Hiring intentions are negative to various degrees across 10 industry sectors and the five regions surveyed.