Job cuts up by over 9% while number of jobs created falls

The results 'point to a more cautious hiring environment'

The total number of jobs created during the second quarter of this year stood at 172,643, a decrease of 0.8% while there were 88,935 job destructions, an increase of 9.4%. File photo

The number of jobs cut during the three months of April to June increased by over 9% compared to the same period last year while the number of jobs created declined marginally, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

According to the latest labour market churn report, the total number of jobs created during the second quarter of this year stood at 172,643, a decrease of 0.8% year-on-year. In that same time, there were 88,935 job destructions, which was 9.4% more than the number recorded 12 months earlier.

Head of human resources at professional advisory firm Orbitus said the drop in job creation and rise in job destruction “point to a more cautious hiring environment”.

“Organisations are no longer expanding at pace, and some are beginning to consolidate or restructure.” 

The largest year-on-year increase in job creations was seen in human health and social work activities, where creations rose by 2,853 and education where creations were up 1,420.

Job churn between April and June was 323,336, down 2,984. The associated job churn rate was 11.3%, a drop of 0.4 percentage points.

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The highest job churn rate was recorded in the administrative and support service activities sector, at 25.6%, while the lowest rate, 1.6%, was recorded in the services sector.

Labour market churn is the number of people being hired and the number of people leaving their job. In the quarter, there were 334,311 hirings, down 0.8%, while job separations ticked up by 2.5% to 250,603.

There were 2,557,114 people who stayed in their current employment, up 53,742, which is the highest recorded in this data series.

Ms O’Brien added that the fall in the churn rate, and the high level of people staying in their current job, suggests “a stabilising, or perhaps risk-averse, workforce”.