Professional job vacancies up by a fifth in June

The number of professional job vacancies increased by almost a fifth in June compared to the same month a year ago, according to new figures from recruiter Morgan McKinley.

Irish-owned Morgan McKinley, which is a global recruiter specialising in accounting and finance, financial services, technical and IT sectors, also said vacancies were up 5 per cent compared with May.

The company’s monthly employment monitor said there were 6 per cent fewer professionals seeking jobs in June compared to May, although annually there was 4 per cent more seeking jobs than in June last year.

It said there was “continuously strong growth” in the information and communications technology sector where there is demand for specialised skill sets including software engineering and cyber security.

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In financial services, there was “strong demand” for risk and compliance professionals; specialists in consumer protection; credit control; quantitative analysis; data analysts; recently qualified accountants; as well as experienced accounting professionals.

In the wider business and administrative services areas, there was demand for people with multilingual skills and most notably the German, Nordic, Dutch and French languages.

Unemployment rate

Morgan McKinley Ireland director of inward investment Trayc Keevans said she agreed with projections that the headline unemployment rate in Ireland will fall below 6 per cent by the end of the year.

“The moderate reduction in the number of jobseekers in June, compared to May, is largely seasonal in nature as there is usually less mobility and attrition to be seen in the market at this time of year,” she said.

“Nevertheless we predict continuing buoyancy in the professional jobs market into 2018.”

She said it was "still too early to say" if the job vacancies were related to an influx due to Britain's imminent exit from the European Union.

“Many companies in the financial services sector are simply maintaining their currently strong levels of employment as opposed to overtly expanding,” she said.

“However, we are currently advising a number of multinational corporations in relation to their future intentions for Ireland.”

Ms Keevans added that the Republic “continues to be perceived as an appealing and competitive location” for foreign direct investment (FDI).

“This is not just in respect of US companies as, for example, we are currently supporting the inward recruitment intentions of companies from mainland Europe, Australia and Canada where Morgan McKinley also recently opened offices in Toronto,” she said.

Separately, jobs for chefs, hotel workers and restaurant staff were up during the second quarter, according to the latest IrishJobs.ie Jobs Index.

IrishJobs.ie recorded a 22 per cent year-on-year increase in vacancies in the hotel and catering sector, with fierce competition within the industry to recruit experienced chefs.

Cooling effect

The recruiter said any Government move to revise the tourism sector’s 9 per cent VAT rate “could have a cooling effect” on recruitment.

The construction sector continued its bounce back with jobs up 21 per cent year-on-year with quantity surveyor and civil engineers, particularly in demand.

“With the commercial and residential property markets continuing to perform robustly, the roles across construction, architecture and property can be expected to grow in the medium term,” said the index.

IrishJobs.ie general manager Orla Moran said it was “still too soon” to see post-Brexit roles emerge in the Irish job market.

"We support a range of banks and financial institutions with their recruitment including JP Morgan, State Street and Bank of America so we will be tracking movement in banking jobs closely," she said.

“Dublin has fared well so far in terms of the companies who already declared their post Brexit intentions but there is still a long way to go and Paris in particular is pulling out all the stops to attract these lucrative, high value jobs.”