Morgan McKinley Monthly Employment Monitor Infographic is now available here
Highlights Overall:
- Professional job vacancies up 23% nationally on February 2014 demonstrating continued growth in the economy (11,801 vacancies this month V 9,570 vacancies in February 2014).
- February 2015 saw a 6% increase in the number of professionals entering the employment market compared with the previous month, January 2015.
- The financial services; funds and asset management; treasury and legal sectors are particularly active.
- The ICT sector saw a growing requirement for professionals with data analytics expertise.
- Positive start to 2015 for Cork, Limerick and the South East on the jobs front driven by multinational, multilingual and financial services sector growth.
Regional Insights:
- Professional job vacancies up by over 30% in Cork compared to February 2014 and an increase of over 70% in Limerick compared to the same month last year.
- In Cork manufacturing growth in the FMCG, dairy and nutrition sectors is driving job creation. The buoyancy in this sector is stimulating the creation of new roles in finance, operations, quality control and HR.
- In Limerick organisations serving the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region are actively seeking French, German, Spanish and Nordic speaking professionals in large numbers.
- The professional services sector has seen continued growth outside of Dublin as practices hire cross all levels.
- In Limerick and the South East small, medium sized and Big 4 practices have been recruiting at senior and semi senior in large numbers because of increased client demand.
- In Cork, there has been increased demand for taxation professionals, with particular emphasis on corporation tax expertise. This is being driven both by multinational and SME demand for tax expertise.
The number of professional job vacancies in February 2015 was up by 23% nationally compared to the same month last year according to the February 2015 Morgan McKinley Ireland Employment Monitor. While positive figures for Cork, Limerick and the South East indicate the recovery in the professional jobs market is more balanced and with a greater geographical spread than in 2014.
Morgan McKinley Ireland Chief Operations Officer, Karen O’Flaherty, commented:
“We have seen a very positive start to 2015 in Cork, Limerick and the South East, with a significant increase in vacancies for professionals compared to the same time last year. Mirroring the trends we have seen in Dublin, there is strong demand for finance professionals driven by continued growth in corporate and manufacturing activity.
Within the SME sector, client expansion and growth fuelled demand for accounting and finance talent nationally. While audit and tax professionals, particularly those with Big 4 training, also saw increased interest from employers in Cork and Limerick.
In Cork manufacturing growth in the FMCG, dairy and nutrition sectors was driving activity.
In Limerick and the South East there was strong demand across the multilingual sector where multinational companies that serve the EMEA region were actively seeking to recruit professionals. The most in-demand languages were German, French, Spanish and Nordic. Challenges remain in sourcing this talent.
In Dublin, treasury, asset management and business development professionals within retail banking, life assurance and insurance were in high demand. The requirement for accounting and finance professionals within the multinational sector also increased, in particular for professionals with international or shared services centre (SSC) backgrounds. This is indicative of the migration to Dublin of finance functions and shared services centres.
Nationally there is clear evidence of increased mobility among finance professionals this month, with employers becoming more focused on the need to strengthen their retention strategies. Counter offers are prevalent as employers seek to retain top talent in this sector.
The ICT sector saw a growing requirement for professionals specifically with data analytics expertise.
Overall, the trends indicate there is a greater geographic balance to employment recovery so far this year.”