Irish jobs market continues to stabilise in 2023

The Irish jobs market continued to moderate in 2023 and the number of vacancies continued to decline, as the surge in hiring in recent years subsided.

The IT sector continued to show a large number of professional vacancies, despite the layoffs of recent months.

A report from IrishJobs found the number of vacancies in the market fell 28 per cent year on year, with a 13 per cent decline in the fourth quarter compared to the preceding three months.

However, jobseeker activity – a measure of demand for new roles in the jobs market – increased in the final three months of the year, compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.

The jobs site said the increase in activity along with lower vacancies may help employers this year who have found attracting and hiring talent challenging.

The research found the largest number of professional vacancies was in the IT sector, at 6 per cent of all jobs advertised in the quarter, in line with 2019 figures, and across the whole year.

That compared to 7 per cent in 2022, and followed hypergrowth in the tech market due to a surge in demand during the pandemic. Demand was resilient for a wide range of roles, with lead data architects and data security officers among the top jobs.

In the construction sector, there was a modest 2 per cent increase quarter on quarter amid demand for skills to meet national housing targets. Site managers and site engineers were among the most sought-after workers last year.

There was a 20 per cent decline in the number of remote and working-from-home vacancies, the second successive quarterly decline.

However, the fall-off in the number of jobs meeting this criteria does not yet indicate a long-term stabilisation, or a reduction, of the level of homeworking in Ireland, with the second quarter of 2023 showing amodest increase in remote roles.

The majority of remote-working vacancies were offered by companies in Dublin – 74 per cent – and Limerick, at 15 per cent, indicating that the pressure of commuting may be fuelling the availability of those roles.

“Although there are signs of limited softening in the labour market, the Central Bank expects unemployment to remain under 5 per cent, indicating a relatively stable and competitive market for talent is set to continue this year.

In line with this trend of stabilisation, hiring has continued to moderate over the past quarter, with job vacancies declining at a quarterly and yearly rate, from previous highs,” said Sam Dooley, country director of the Stepstone Group Ireland, with responsibility for IrishJobs.

“With a competitive environment for talent likely to continue this year, we expect more employers to take a skills-based approach to hiring potential talent over the coming months. By looking beyond traditional measures, such as years of experience in screening candidates and focusing on the skills that are most relevant to the role, employers can secure the right talent to grow and evolve with their business.”