50% worried about financial pressures in year ahead

HALF of adults surveyed in Ireland said they are worried they will not be able to cope financially this year.

One in three said they have fears about their ability to pay an unexpected bill, while just over one in four are nervous about holding onto their job.

The survey by Irish Life among 1,000 adults also found that one in 10 are worried about paying their mortgage this year.

Meanwhile, a separate survey on the jobs market found there was an increase in recruitment activity from larger businesses in the final three months of last year.

The IrishJobs.ie jobs index, which measures jobs advertised at online recruitment firms, found that there was a 3% drop in jobs posted in the last three months of 2009 compared with the previous three months.

The sectors with the biggest increases in jobs advertised online were secretarial and administration, up 24%, financial services up 18% and online and IT, which saw a 19% jump.

There was also a 12% increase in marketing jobs advertised by large corporate businesses, which the survey noted is “very promising” as it suggests that organisations are more hopeful about the year ahead.

It pointed out that this is opposite to the trend in late 2007 and early 2008 when companies cut marketing spend and marketing roles.

The sectors which saw the biggest drops in quarter four were hotel and catering, down 19%, retail and wholesale, which fell 14% and education, childcare and training, down 23%. The top counties for jobs in were Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Managing director of saongroup.com, Jane Lorigan said: “There are positive signs that key business sectors are now actively recruiting again. Real time figures from the jobs index reveal that active sectors for recruitment are financial services, engineering and utilities, online and IT and sales.

“Findings also reveal that large corporate businesses, which first felt the impact of the downturn early in Q1 and stopped hiring, are now reporting increased levels of recruitment which is an indicator of economic stability.”

Latest figures show the unemployment rate now stands at 12.7%. The number of people without work is the highest since 1994, when the figure was 14.7%.

According to the National Quarterly Household Survey, there were 1,922,400 people in work in the third quarter of 2009. That was 8.8% or 184,700 less than in the same quarter last year.