Drop in firms with job vacancies

Irish firms reported having fewer vacancies last month, it emerged today.

The latest FAS/ESRI employment and vacancies survey showed that 15% of companies in the private sector had unfilled positions in August, compared to 21% the previous month.

The decline was predominantly driven by the services sector, where vacancies fell by 13% to just 19%.

The construction sector experienced no change in its jobs market, while vacant positions fell slightly in the industrial sector and increased in the retail sector.

The figures came just days after it emerged the number of people in employment in Ireland passed the two million mark for the first time.

Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office said there were 2,017,000 people at work in the second quarter of 2006, representing an annual increase of 87,800 or 4.6%.

However, today’s survey also revealed the expectations of construction employers deteriorated to their most pessimistic level in almost two years. Expectations of bosses looking to fill jobs in the retail sector also fell to its lowest level in over three years.

The report found the most difficult-to-fill vacancies in each sector were site managers and quantity surveyors in the construction industry, engineers and accountants in the industrial sector, sales staff in retail and insurance clerks and accountants in the service industry.