Job creation expected to offset layoffs

A tentative turnaround is emerging in the Irish economy with job creation expected to offset job losses in the coming months.

Irish business activity strengthened in the final months of 2012, with the result that employment growth seems to have turned positive, according to the Winter 2012 KBC Bank Ireland/Chartered Accountants Ireland Business Sentiment Survey.

KBC Bank Ireland’s chief economist Austin Hughes’s analysis of the data found that the strengthening in activity in late 2012 has translated into an increase in new hiring and a reduction in layoffs.