The Irish economy is gradually recovering from the downturn but the labour market remains weak, says the IBEC/ESRI monthly industrial survey published today.
The March survey shows continuing improvement in business confidence, according to IBEC chief economist Mr David Croughan. He pointed out that although output and exports increased in February domestic sales remained weak.
Looking ahead to the next three months, Mr Croughan said the trend in companies’ expectations for exports continued to improve but again prospects for the domestic market are seen lagging behind.
Mr Croughan said although the trend in order books continued to improve they still remained close to their weakest level for a decade.
The capital goods sector, which had shown the sharpest decline over the past year was making the biggest recovery, he said.
But Mr Croughan said that there were still no sign of employment prospects recovering soon as companies were still reporting expectations for stable or lower employment in the next three months.