There was a 5% increase in the number of professionals seeking jobs in Ireland in July compared to the same month a year ago, however professional job vacancies available in Ireland reduced by 12% in the same period according to the Morgan McKinley Ireland Monthly Employment Monitor.

The employment monitor states that the rise in professionals seeking jobs is seen as an indicator of continuing employee confidence, mobility and a willingness to consider opportunities. Meanwhile, the reduction in professional job vacancies in July, which is also likely to carry through the current month of August, is considered seasonal in nature following a sustained period of intensive hiring in the professional services recruitment market in recent months.

On a month-to-month basis, the number of professionals seeking new roles remained flat in July while professional job vacancies slumped by 24%.

“There are currently fewer professional jobs coming onto the market however we have seen a much busier period of recruitment in the first half of 2017 than in any year previously since the economic crisis, so some level of seasonality is now to be expected,” Morgan McKinley Ireland, Director of Inward Investment, Trayc Keevans, said. ““In a very competitive market for talent acquisition, we are also seeing an elongation of hiring timelines including an increase in assertiveness by employers where there is a trend of counter offers being made to retain employees. This is predominantly for critical functions in the ICT and Financial Services industries. Employers are also deliberately enhancing their career progression, succession planning and employee retention strategies.”

Among the sectors, Morgan McKinley stated the ICT sector “remains continually buoyant with strong demand now traversing all industry sectors for experienced and newly qualifying staff. In particular, the FDI sector is recruiting both for organic growth and the completion of staffing for European hubs. The indigenous IT sector (including SMEs) is also in steady growth mode.”

There was also high demand for engineers including design engineers and electrical design engineers across the medical device, heavy industry and electrical/automation industries.

Demand was also high for professionals in the Supply Chain sector, Business Administration/Services, Human Resources and Financial Services.