Job postings continue to dwindle as post-Covid boom settles
Job postings have fallen significantly from elevated post-pandemic levels, driven by declines in various white-collar roles and technology.
The number of adverts for roles was 15pc above the pre-pandemic baseline of February 2020, according to Indeed’s latest Job Postings Index for Ireland, a real-time measure of labour market activity. This compares to the peak recorded in February 2022, when job postings were 65pc above the baseline.
The figures from Indeed highlighted the decline in categories that had been among Ireland’s strongest performers for years. This was particularly evident in tech with postings in software development now around 40pc below pre-pandemic levels.
Dublin has also fared worse than the rest of the country, thanks to its exposure to the technology sector and other struggling job roles in professional services.
Jack Kennedy, senior economist with Indeed, said he anticipated Irish job postings would continue to fall and hit around the same levels seen just before the pandemic.
“Barring any major downside shocks to the economy from geopolitics, it will be a steady-as-she-goes kind of picture with a continuation of the trends of recent months and that incremental softening of postings.”
Indeed started sharing the job postings data in the aftermath of the pandemic. Ireland experienced one of the sharpest declines in job postings among the countries examined, with volumes on April 10, 2020, down 39pc on the previous year.
However, data for Ireland shifted in June 2021 when job postings finally exceeded pre-pandemic levels but are now slowly falling closer to pre-Covid levels.
Indeed also works with the Central Bank on wage-growth data. Wages grew by around 4.7pc year on year in February 2024.
Kennedy said the “normalisation” of job-postings data had been a trend recorded internationally. However, Ireland was well ahead of the UK, which has job postings around 6pc below pre-pandemic levels.
Healthcare occupations, including veterinary, therapy, dental, physicians and surgeons, dominated the categories where job postings were farthest above pre-pandemic levels.
The weakest performers included marketing and tech roles. Roles in arts and entertainment, and mathematics were also poor performers.
Kennedy said there was hope the slowdown in tech was close to ending.
“We have seen a profound slowdown. It is very much driven by the US economy and when the Federal Reserve might start cutting interest rates and give things a bit of a fillip.”
Job postings in the capital are now 12pc below their pre-pandemic level. Postings outside Dublin stood at 54pc above their pre-pandemic level.
Kennedy also noted the labour market had remained robust, despite challenges such as geopolitical uncertainty and a global economic slowdown.
February’s unemployment rate was 4.2pc, down from the 4.5pc recorded in January.
Norwegian state-owned renewables giant Statkraft can go ahead with its proposed 150-acre solar development on farmland close to Dublin Airport after a local resident withdrew an appeal to An Bord Pleanála against the plan.
The farm at Spricklestown, near the Dublin-Meath border, is the latest solar project to get permission in the area, with at least 30 similar facilities now granted permission in Meath and Fingal alone.
The appeal by the local resident had cited impacts that the local community was already dealing with in terms of the proliferation of solar farms, as well as the impact from Dublin Airport’s new runway.
In January, Statkraft had revealed that it plans to roll out 3GW of renewable energy projects in Ireland by 2030. At the time, the company said it had submitted plans for over 375MW of wind and solar projects to An Bord Pleanála that were awaiting a decision.
Planning permission had been
granted by Fingal County Council in July of last year in an area that was zoned as a green belt next to the M2 motorway.
But in his appeal, the resident, who said he was “supportive of renewable energy generation” had, described the plan as a “step too far for the area given that the applicant Statkraft already has four solar farms in the immediate location”.
The objector had referred to the “ongoing issues” with Dublin Airport’s new northern runway, saying “the local community have enough to contend with”.
“Local homeowners, including myself, have been asserting that their property values would be negatively impacted by utility-scale solar development.
“Elderly locals (of whom I am one), could suffer from thousands of minutes of glint and glare for the rest of their lives when the sun bounces of the panels.”
But Statkraft has been informed he has now withdrawn his appeal.
Permission allows for the construction of a series of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on ground-mounted frames with a maximum capacity of 39MW and an operational life of 35 years.