The number of professional job vacancies available in Ireland in the fourth quarter of 2022 decreased overall by 17 per cent compared to the prior third quarter.
That is according to the Morgan McKinley monitor which measures the pulse of the Irish professional jobs market by tracking the number of new job vacancies and new candidates in the country each quarter.
They said the reduction is mainly due to the expected decrease in job vacancies for the month of December, which showed a 42 per cent sequential decrease from November.
New job opportunities coming to market in December were down 8 per cent back compared to December 2021. Indicatively, the number of job vacancies in November 2022 was up 38 per cent, year-on-year.
The Morgan McKinley monitor also recorded an overall increase of 5.4 per cent in the number of professionals actively seeking new job opportunities between Q3 2022 and Q4 2022.
December 2022 saw a drop of 49 per cent in professional job applicants from the prior month, however it still represented an increase of 30 per cent from December 2021.
Morgan McKinley notes that work flexibility continues to be a dominant requirement for talent across all sectors with a hybrid 2–3-day on-site option becoming the average offering of employers.
They said combined housing and cost of living challenges are also having a significant impact on hiring processes.
In some sectors, employers are paying for short-term accommodation.
Many employers are also starting to request local candidates only, to mitigate against housing challenges that face employees. This includes talent transferring across Ireland as there is a concern they will not be able to secure accommodation.
Speaking about the monitor, Trayc Keevans, global FDI director with Morgan McKinley Ireland, said: “The Christmas period can affect hiring processes which can drastically slow down, or even come to a complete halt.
"However, job postings in the last quarter of 2022 overall remained stable despite the economic headwinds employers are facing.
"There’s little doubt that the economy faces some daunting challenges in 2023, however, the labour market is in a strong position to withstand the forecast turbulence."
She said Ireland has become less attractive to overseas technology candidates and overseas hires have also become less of a priority for Irish technology employers.
Ms Keevans said: "Factors such as remote working options and, to a lesser extent other economic and housing crisis variables, resulted in overseas jobseekers putting pause on their plans to relocate to Ireland or considering alternative locations in the short term.
"In addition, Ireland’s technology employers have benefitted in local hiring and have taken advantage of available personnel from multinationals already in the market."
