We regularly update this report to track the pandemic’s effects on the labour market. 

Job postings on Indeed Ireland advanced further over the past four weeks. Job postings — a real-time measure of labour market activity — were 32.2% above the 1 February, 2020, pre-pandemic baseline, seasonally adjusted, as of 10 September, 2021. That’s a 10.6 percentage point gain since the previous update as of 13 August, 2021. With more reopening of the economy to come, the job postings recovery seems likely to have further legs. 

A line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed Ireland”
A line graph titled “Job postings on Indeed Ireland” showing the percentage change in job postings on Indeed Ireland since 01 Feb 2020, seasonally adjusted, to 10 Sep 2021. There was a 32.2% change in job postings on Indeed Ireland from 01 Feb 2020 to 10 Sep 2021.

Doctors, social scientists and chemical engineers in demand 

Over the last four weeks, the majority of sectors made gains. The strongest improvements were in the physicians & surgeons, social science and chemical engineering categories. Only a handful of sectors saw weakening trends, including medical information, agriculture and childcare (in each case postings remained well above pre-pandemic levels). 

Table titled “Strong growth across a number of categories.”
Table titled “Strong growth across a number of categories.” Indeed compared the percent change in Irish job postings, between 01 February, 2020, and 10 Sep 2021 across various sectors divided into sections “strongest performers,” and “weakest performers.” The strongest performers were physicians & surgeons, social science and chemical engineering, while the weakest performers were medical information, agriculture and childcare.

Kildare leads job posting recovery

Looking at trends in the five largest counties by job posting volume, County Kildare leads the recovery, with job postings now 64% above pre-pandemic levels. Galway follows at 45%. Limerick and Dublin remain laggards, with job postings 13% and 18% above the baseline respectively. 

A line graph titled “Kildare leads job posting recovery”
A line graph titled “Kildare leads job posting recovery” showing a breakdown of the percentage change in job postings on Indeed Ireland since 01 Feb 2020, seasonally adjusted, to 10 Sep 2021, by the five largest counties by job posting volume. Kildare had the highest increase at 64%, while Limerick was the weakest performer at 13%.

We will continue to provide regular updates on these trends as the situation evolves. We also host the data behind the postings trends plots on Github as downloadable CSV files. Typically, the site will be updated with the latest data one day after the respective Hiring Lab tracker is published.

Methodology

All figures in this blog post are the percentage change in seasonally-adjusted job postings since 1 February, 2020, using a seven-day trailing average. 1 February, 2020, is our pre-pandemic baseline. We seasonally adjust each series based on historical patterns in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Each series, including the national trend, occupational sectors, and sub-national geographies, is seasonally adjusted separately. We adopted this new methodology in January 2021. 

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.