There has been a 62 per cent decrease in job listings relating to food and drink since last year, according to new data from Indeed.com.
Overall job postings began to recover in January, but remain 24 per cent lower than last year.
Healthcare and manufacturing sectors recruiting above pre-crisis levels. Also, now 13 per cent of job postings now mention remote work (+10 per cent).
The research from Indeed shows how Ireland’s labour market has fared one year on from the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Ireland last February.
Ireland has shown signs of improvement, closing the gap by 6 percentage points this year so far. This chimes with the job pickup seen generally across Europe in January, they said.
Poland saw the biggest recovery in job postings, up 10 per cent, followed by Italy, up 7 per cent. Overall, Ireland’s recovery is currently faring better than that of the UK or Spain, but is behind the other five EU countries examined.
Sectoral impacts from Covid-19 have been very uneven. Only healthcare and manufacturing have job postings exceeding their pre-pandemic baselines.
Others sectors impacted most include social, customer and personal services (-45 per cent) and construction (-36 per cent).
Remote working
Speaking about the data, Jack Kennedy, economist at job site Indeed said: “This past year has undoubtedly been one of the toughest on record for many dealing with job losses or business closures, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“A successful vaccine rollout could mean face-to-face service sectors like hospitality and food service could make a comeback later in the year.
“This would be of significant benefit in helping to limit the rise in unemployment as these sectors are labour-intensive. It would also benefit younger workers who have borne the brunt of the crisis, with the youth unemployment rate standing at 56 per cent on the Covid-adjusted measure."
Remote work has seen a big jump in interest. The proportion of job postings mentioning remote work has increased from 3.6 per cent to 13.4 per cent over the past year.
Some occupations have seen particularly large jumps in the share of remote job postings. The highest prevalence of remote work is in arts & entertainment, tech, engineering and business roles.
Similarly, searches for remote work quadrupled over the same timeframe, with most of the uplift seen in periods of tight lockdown, with a big jump in spring 2020 and a further increase over the winter.
