Key Points:
- Irish job postings stabilised in the last few months of 2024 and were almost 19% above pre-pandemic levels as of mid-January.
- The labour market remains tight and continues to support robust wage growth.
- The share of Irish job postings advertising remote/hybrid work opportunities rose to a post-pandemic high in December, suggesting the persistence of flexible working models despite many companies’ focus on workers returning to offices.
- Foreign interest in Irish jobs is high, with job searches from abroad reaching the highest in at least eight years, offering a route to help address skills shortages.
- Jobs specifically mentioning Generative AI are rare, but growing fast and appearing across a range of occupations.
The Irish economy enters 2025 in a good shape, with forecasts pointing to a rebound in growth this year alongside low inflation and unemployment. The strength of the Irish labour market has been supported by an increase in labour supply, largely driven by high net inward migration and increased female labour market participation. The European Central Bank also cut interest rates four times in 2024 and is expected to reduce rates further in 2025, providing another tailwind to growth.
But there are risks, particularly related to geoeconomics. Given Ireland’s trade dependency and reliance on the multinational sector, any possible changes to US trade or tax policies, for example, could potentially harm the Irish economy. Domestic infrastructure constraints add to these vulnerabilities.
The Irish labour market has gradually rebalanced following a post-pandemic hiring boom which peaked in 2022. Vacancies are well down from post-pandemic highs, but unemployment has stayed low. Jobs growth has continued, with the employment rate rising to a record high. It remains a fluid labour market: Job switching rates slowed in the first half of 2024 but picked up in the third quarter.
The Irish general election outcome points to stability in government policies and ongoing public investment, though the order of priorities for the new administration remains unknown as coalition negotiations continue. Housing, infrastructure and childcare are likely to be areas of focus.
Irish job postings remain high but have gradually fallen from peak
Job postings in Ireland have steadily retreated after peaking in early 2022 at levels that were more than double their pre-pandemic baseline, but were still 19% higher than pre-pandemic norms as of 17 January. After a two-year period of gradual normalisation, the level of postings has remained relatively stable since mid-2024.
Most occupational categories have seen declines in job postings over the past year, to varying degrees. Public sector occupations including healthcare and education are among those where postings are furthest above their immediate pre-pandemic baseline, alongside cleaning & sanitation. Tech categories are among the weakest performers, with postings for IT operations & helpdesk roles down almost 30% from February 2020.
Dublin job postings continue to lag
County Dublin has fared the worst among Ireland’s largest counties over the past few years, reflecting its greater sectoral exposure to the kinds of tech and professional occupations that have experienced some of the biggest declines in job postings. The total level of job postings in Dublin was 8% below the pre-pandemic baseline as of mid-January, the only county analyzed where postings are not currently higher than pre-pandemic norms, though declines have stabilised in recent months. Of the country’s five largest counties, job postings in Kildare were furthest above the baseline, at +52% as of mid-January.
Labour market remains tight amid continued low unemployment
Unemployment in Ireland has remained low for a sustained period. The unemployment rate has been below 5% since early-2022 and stood at 4.2% in December 2024, not far from the 4% rate generally considered to be nearing full employment in Ireland. While job vacancies are down from peaks, the ratio of vacancies to unemployed people remains higher than in 2019 (0.24 in Q3 2024 v 0.15 in Q3 2019). That implies that the pool of unemployed jobseekers for employers to hire from is limited, suggesting that job seekers retain significant leverage in the current market (though, again, the picture varies across sectors).
Posted wage growth remains robust
The tight Irish labour market continues to support robust wage growth. Year-on-year posted wage growth, as measured by the Indeed Wage Tracker, was 4.6% in December (on a three-month average basis). That pace is decently above the euro area average of 3.3% over the same period, though below the 6.3% seen in the UK.
Official data shows that average weekly earnings across the broader Irish workforce rose 5.3% year-on-year in Q3 2024. With Irish inflation falling to 1% (or less) in recent months, that means workers are seeing punchy real terms pay growth, which is likely to support consumer spending into 2025.
Remote and hybrid work persists, despite RTO push
Despite a number of high-profile return-to-office (RTO) mandates, the share of Irish job postings mentioning remote or hybrid work is as high as ever, rising to 17.5% by the end of December — more than 4x higher than pre-pandemic levels. Offering location flexibility remains an important tool for attracting a broad range of candidates, with professional and tech categories including arts & entertainment (50%), media & communications (43%), insurance (43%) and software development (41%) among the occupations with the highest shares of remote/hybrid postings.
Jobseeker interest in flexible work also remains high. Around 2.6% of all searches for Irish job postings contained remote or hybrid keywords as of the end of December, similar to levels prevailing since 2022 and up around tenfold on pre-pandemic levels.
Foreign interest in Irish job postings has risen
Foreign interest in the Irish labour market has rebounded strongly from pandemic lows. On average, some 13% of searches for Irish jobs on Indeed originated outside Ireland over the course of 2024, the highest since at least 2017. Prior Hiring Lab research found that Ireland was one of the most attractive European countries for international jobseekers, reflecting its status as a relatively high-income, open economy. Outbound searches from Ireland-based jobseekers looking at opportunities abroad averaged 8% over 2024, a similar range to previous years.
The job search data correspond with official figures, which show immigration to Ireland reaching a 17-year high in the year to April 2024 and the population increasing at the fastest rate since 2008. Higher immigration and a growing population can be positive factors for employers seeking broad access to talent. But both bring discussions around the need for continued investment in education, infrastructure and housing, both to support the increased population and to maintain Ireland’s attractiveness to skilled, internationally mobile workers.
In 2024, the Irish government issued a record 39,390 employment permits, a 27% rise compared to 2023. With the economy nearing full employment, recruitment from outside the European Economic Area is helping to address critical skills shortages.
Of these permits, more than 12,500 were issued for roles in the health sector, including key positions such as nurses and healthcare assistants. More than 6,500 permits went to professionals in the information and communications technology sector, while the agriculture sector received 3,500+ permits and the accommodation and food services sectors were allocated more than 3,000.
Likely not coincidentally, job postings in the occupations that received the highest shares of foreign interest last year also included agriculture (where a small majority of clicks came from abroad), healthcare, engineering and tech.
Remaining attractive to international workers will be important over the coming years as the Irish workforce ages. Ireland currently has a relatively favourable demographic profile, with the second-youngest median age in the EU, but that’s expected to shift significantly in coming decades amid a sharp decline in birth rates. That will place an increased emphasis on productivity gains and access to intentional labour markets to support future economic growth.
Another trend in the Irish workforce has been rising female participation. According to the latest CSO Labour Force Survey, female employment increased by 11,000 in Q3 2024 compared to the previous quarter, raising the total number of employed women in Ireland to 1,317,000. This growth has been supported by factors including enhanced support systems and more flexible working arrangements including the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work models.
But even with a labour supply boosted by these factors, some employers continue to face hiring challenges. One way to widen the pool of potential candidates is to adopt skills-first hiring practices. In some countries, including the US, more employers are considering candidates without formal education degrees and/or those who don’t have a specific number of years of experience in a role.
Indeed job postings data shows that engineering, tech, professional and agriculture occupations are among the hardest to fill for employers. These are similar to the occupations receiving the highest foreign interest, underlining the idea that immigrants can help fill key shortages. As of the end of December, the share of job postings open for 60+ days on average was highest in civil engineering (46%), followed by industrial engineering (38%).
GenAI jobs are on the rise, but the number is small and volatile
Job postings that specifically mention any of a basket of keywords related to creating or using generative AI (GenAI) tools in a given role have been rising rapidly from virtually zero prior to the launch of ChatGPT in late-2022, and continue to gain momentum. The GenAI share in Ireland stands at around 0.7% of all job postings as of end-December, which is high relative to other countries and reflects the sizeable footprint of the tech sector on the Irish economy. However, it’s still a small and volatile number of jobs overall.
GenAI jobs are appearing across a range of categories
Irish employers across a wide range of sectors are looking to harness GenAI. The most common sector for GenAI jobs is the mathematics category (which includes jobs like analysts, data scientists and data modellers), where 7.9% of postings mention GenAI. That’s followed by software development (4.8%), production & manufacturing (2.2%) and media & communications (2.1%).
Based on our previous analysis of GenAI replacement risk, we find that the industrial engineering and IT operations & helpdesk categories have more GenAI postings than might otherwise be expected in Ireland. Conversely, there are fewer GenAI postings than expected in accounting, administrative support, human resources and insurance and medical information.
Conclusion
The Irish labour market is strong and looks on course to remain so in 2025, though it remains to be seen how possible policy shifts by the new US administration could impact Ireland’s economic model longer-term.
For jobseekers, that means retained leverage over their pay and benefits, as evidenced by robust wage growth and employers continuing to offer flexibility. For employers, that’s important not only in attracting new talent, but also for retaining existing staff who may be difficult to replace given the tightness of the market and long-standing skill shortages in certain occupations. Considering international candidates may be one way forward for employers looking to hire.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s tech-heavy economy has made the country an early leader in GenAI adoption, with companies across many sectors increasingly integrating the technology into their workstreams. Continuing that growth will require the ongoing ability to hire skilled staff and/or widespread upskilling of existing workforces to harness the technology’s full potential.