This post is updated as of 10th April 2020. We will continue to update these trends regularly as we track how coronavirus impacts the global labour market. 

The shutdown of large swaths of Ireland’s economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic continues to be felt in the labour market. The Central Statistics Office reported that the unemployment rate rose from 4.8% to 5.4% in March, but could be as high as 16.5% if all claimants of the government’s Pandemic Unemployment Payment were classified as unemployed.

Job postings data on Indeed offers a timelier measure of the health of the labour market. The trend in job posting volumes this year is sharply lower than in 2018 and 2019, having turned down sharply from mid-March as social distancing measures were implemented. Job posting volumes in the week through 10th April were down 39% on the same period last year. 

job postings on Indeed, Ireland
This line graph shows the Job postings on Indeed, Ireland in a 7 day moving average through 10 April.

Ireland has experienced one of the sharper declines in job postings among those countries we have looked at, with only New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Canada seeing bigger falls.

Decline in trend in job postings in 2020
This table shows job postings trend on Indeed as of 10 April 2020 versus same day in 2019 by country. New Zeland saw a -58.2% drip in job postings, Australia saw a -49.6% decline, United Kingdom saw a -43.8% decline in job postings, Canada saw a -43.1% decline, Ireland had a -39.0% decline, Italy had a -35.5% decline, Spain had a -35.5% decline, France had a -34.9% decline, United States had a -30.8% decline, Poland had a -30.2% decline, Netherlands had a -26.5% decline, Belgium had a -21.1% decline, Germany had a -16.6% decline, and Singapore had a -14.9% decline in job postings from 2019.

In terms of new job postings (those that have been on Indeed Ireland for seven days or less), these are down 59% on last year’s trend as of 10th April. That said, the pace of decline appears to be easing.

new job postings on Indeed ireland
This line chart shows the 7 day moving average of new job postings on Indeed, Ireland through 10 April. The data shows new job postings (those that have been on Indeed Ireland for seven days or less), are down 59% on last year’s trend as of 10th April.

Some sectors hit much harder than others

Occupations most directly impacted by shutdown measures unsurprisingly show the steepest decline in job postings. Beauty & wellness job postings are down 87% on a year ago, closely followed by hospitality & tourism (down 86%) and food preparation & service (down 78%). 

Healthcare-related occupations are holding up better, though are still seeing annual declines. Pharmacy job postings are down 4% on last year’s trend, while medical information and nursing postings are down 21% and 24% respectively. 

Some tech occupations have also seen smaller than average declines, such as IT operations & helpdesk (down 20%) and software development (down 25%). 

big difference in sectoral impacts indeed ireland
This table shows job postings trend on Indeed as of 10 April 2020 (vs. same day in 2019) by select occupations. The occupations that saw a larger than average decline was as follows: Beauty & Wellness showed a -87% decline, Hospitality & Tourism showed a -86% decline, Food Preparation & Service showed a -78% decline, Childcare showed a -69% decline, and Driving saw a -63% decline. The occupations that had declines similar to economy average were: Banking & Finance showed a -39% decline, Retail showed a -37% decline, and Production & Manufacturing showed a -36% decline. Occupations that had smaller than average declines were: Software Development had a -25% decline, Nursing had a -24% decline, Medical Information had a -21% decline, IT Operations & Helpdesk had a -20% decline, and Pharmacy had a -4% decline.

Methodology

To measure the trends in total job postings, we calculated the 7-day moving average of the number of job postings on Indeed Ireland. We indexed each day’s 7-day moving average to the start of that year (1 February 2020 = 100 for 2020 data, and so on), or another date if specified on the chart.

For each country we report how the trend in total job postings this year differs from last year, in order to focus on the recent changes in labour market conditions due to COVID-19. For example: if job postings for a country increased 30% from 1 February 2019 to 10 April 2019, but only 20% from 1 February 2020 to 10 April 2020, then the index would have risen from 100 to 130 in 2019 and 100 to 120 in 2020. The year-to-date trend in job postings would therefore be down 7.7% on 10 April (120 is 7.7% below 130) in 2020 relative to 2019. 

The number of job postings on Indeed.com, whether related to paid or unpaid job solicitations, is not indicative of potential revenue or earnings of Indeed, which comprises a significant percentage of the HR Technology segment of its parent company, Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Job posting numbers are provided for information purposes only and should not be viewed as an indicator of performance of Indeed or Recruit. Please refer to the Recruit Holdings investor relations website and regulatory filings in Japan for more detailed information on revenue generation by Recruit’s HR Technology segment.