Old economy occupations back in vogue

It's time for us all to retrain as nurses. Failing that, pharmacy might be a good choice, or perhaps accountancy. Qualifications in any of the above will practically guarantee employment in the Republic at the moment and, given current economic uncertainty, that makes them valuable commodities indeed.

That the Republic's job market has changed dramatically within the past year is an understatement. Unemployment is at its highest rate since the dark days of 1986, and IDA figures show that more than 17,082 jobs have been eliminated in the course of 2001.

IT has been the biggest loser and it is perhaps telling that the only obvious link between the sectors of the recruitment market that have remained buoyant in the current downturn is that they are all far removed from the high-tech world. Nursing, construction and financial services, all part of the so-called "old economy", are proving that they can provide some excitement.

Recruitment consultants were at the coalface when it came to feeling the first IT chills earlier this year. The effect of the technology slowdown has been a reduction in the number of IT recruitment specialists and, consequently, an increase in expertise in other areas.

Eden Recruitment, which has been in existence for just two-and-a-half years, is a case in point. While Eden has been a multidisciplinary firm since its inception, its emphasis has already changed, based largely on hard times in the IT industry, which first began to hit the firm last March.

Managing director Mr Ken Lee says that Eden has managed to compensate for the IT slowdown with a concentration on financial services and pharmaceuticals.

In financial services, Mr Lee says that Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is still the star performer, with IFSC companies apparently possessing some immunity to any current downturn.

"The IFSC hasn't been hit as hard as the States, and Ireland is still a very favourable climate for financial services companies. They're planning for the longer-term: it's not just a short-term strategy," says Mr Lee. "A lot of our clients are set to enlarge their headcount numbers in January, so it remains healthy."

According to the Financial Services Industry Association, the IFSC, which has been in existence for around 14 years, currently employs 8,000 people.

Ms Helen O'Reilly of PPG, Marlborough Recruitment's financial wing, says this relative maturity translates into upskilling on the jobs front, with increasing demand being created in "front-office" positions such as traders and analysts than previously. Around 60 per cent of PPG's business comes from IFSC companies and Ms O'Reilly says "it's still just as busy" now as it was 12 months ago.

"The biggest demand is in funds," she says. "Companies there have grown and the numbers of funds domiciled in Ireland are continuing to grow. There are also quite a lot of companies applying for banking licences."

More high-profile growth is occurring in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology areas, and many recruitment companies have positioned themselves to take advantage of developments. There has been fierce competition for the recruitment contracts at Genzyme in Waterford, where 480 jobs are to be created, and Wyeth BioPharma in Clondalkin, where 1,300 employees will be in place by 2007. Most of the candidates sought by operations such as these are graduates, again leading to upskilling and a fulfilment of general Government policy goals in the employment area.

"Pharmaceuticals is the big one. It's the one that the IDA is going to be pushing," says Marlborough managing director Mr Adrian McGennis. "Biotech is going to be big too - some of the jobs might be processing and manufacturing but some will be in research and development. It might mean fewer numbers than IT but the levels are a lot higher."

The pharmaceutical/biotechnology boom is also bringing benefits to ancillary industries. Ms Anne-Marie Murphy, general manager of Parc Engineering and Technology, is seeing demand trickle down to quality and validation engineers - the people who help pharmaceutical companies to satisfy international standards.

Engineers are also still in demand in the construction sector, says Ms Murphy, mainly as a consequence of projects related to the €52 billion (£40.95 billion) National Development Plan. "Our construction division is still intact," she says.

In the beleaguered IT sector, it seems not everything is lost. Ms Karen O'Flaherty, principal consultant with Computer Futures, says while times are tougher than they were, there's still a reasonable level of demand for IT professionals in the Republic's economy.

However, the traditional sectors are leading the way. "At the moment, we're looking at the vertical markets," she says. "The demand is still there in the financial sector where institutions would traditionally look at older technologies such as Cobol. There's also demand in IT sales."

The biggest losers this year, according to Ms O'Flaherty, have been candidates holding expertise in internet-related languages, such as C++ and Java - the very skills that were behind much of the IT boom.

"Web design, e- and m-commerce, and telecoms have all taken a hit," she says, pointing out that the fall-off in IT contract opportunities is largely related to this. The ultimate winner at the end of the year, on the other hand, must be nursing.

Few sectors can claim to have been quite so immune from the slowdown. When Ms Kate Cowhig, of Kate Cowhig International Healthcare Recruitment says that "things have improved", she means that the shortage of nurses in the Republic is not quite so severe as it was this time last year.

Cowhig's was recently appointed as the recruitment company to represent the national teaching hospitals, all of which have vacancies, Ms Cowhig says. The hardest positions to fill tend to be in specialist areas, such as intensive care, and at staff-nurse level.

Ms Cowhig says that she has, in recent years, sourced nursing staff from Britain, Finland, Norway and Romania. By far the biggest volume of immigrant nurses working in Irish hospitals come from the Philippines, however, where Ms Cowhig first travelled more than two years ago.

The bridge between demand and supply is still a long way from completion, she says. "We still have a lot of vacancies. We're always looking for people to come back to Ireland and for new people to come here. I think we're getting there, but there are still pockets where things are very uncomfortable."