We regularly update this report to track the pandemic’s effects on the labour market.
Irish job postings on Indeed continue to track broadly sideways, remaining at a high level. Job postings — a real-time measure of labour market activity — were 57% above the 1 February, 2020, pre-pandemic baseline, seasonally adjusted, as of 17 June, 2022. That’s unchanged from the position four weeks ago. Postings peaked at 65% above pre-pandemic levels in mid-February. Though facing headwinds from the rising cost of living, the Irish economy is forecast to maintain brisk growth over coming quarters. After a period of challenging hiring conditions, many employers are still trying to fill staffing gaps.
Some occupations are booming while others lag
We continue to see considerable variation in the strength of job posting recoveries across occupational categories. Therapy postings are more than triple pre-pandemic levels, while social science, personal care & home health and veterinary are among the strongest performers. Conversely, job postings in the real estate and architecture categories stand below pre-pandemic levels.
Kildare maintains lead
Looking across the five largest counties by job posting volume, County Kildare leads with job postings 101% above the baseline. The strong performance of the multinationals sector may be one tailwind for the county’s labour market, with a number of international businesses having presence there. Limerick has the slowest job posting recovery at 36% above the baseline.
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 blogpost 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.