Employment opportunities across Ireland are expected to grow by 10% over the next year, as predicted by the experts at FRS Recruitment.
A number of counties, in particular, have seen huge growth in 2021, which is expected to continue this year.
FRS Recruitment is expecting the “majority” of employers to look at hiring additional staff in a bid to expand their businesses in 2022.
They are predicting a “strong demand” for manufacturing, engineering, construction and IT roles.
In 2021, there was a 12% increase in job postings at 81,528, up from 72,939 in 2020. Sectors such as commercial, IT, healthcare, construction, life sciences, engineering and agriculture saw significant growth.
Temporary and commercial positions also saw growth in 2021.
Those that saw the highest increase in activity, according to FRS Recruitment, included retail (up 117%), transport and logistics (up 82%), pharmacy – retail (up 69%), professional services (up 68%) and banking and financial services (up 58%).
20 of the 26 counties in the Republic saw increases in the number of job postings.
The most significant increase came was recorded in Longford, which was up 158%. Carlow followed next with an increase of 117%.
Next was Kilkenny with 79%, followed by Meath with 76% and Louth with 72%.
Cork had an increase of 60%, while Dublin had 39%.
The capital also had the largest number of postings, accounting for 21% of the national total.
A number of counties experienced a decrease in opportunities. Roscommon saw the largest drop with a decline of 45%, followed by Donegal at 30%.
General Manager for the company, Lynne McCormack, said: “We strongly believe the next 12 months will be another very busy year for recruitment.
“There should be significant movement across the economy with employers looking very closely at their resourcing needs as they seek to grow and expand their organisations and address any current and projected staff shortages
“While in 2021 it was a few months into the year and post the lockdown before the recovery in employment began in earnest, this year FRS Recruitment anticipates demand will be strong right from the outset.
“In recent months we have been seeing signs that the understandable reluctance to engage in change while in the midst of the pandemic, an approach adopted by both employers and employees, has been diminishing.
“We expect that will lead to a lot more movement in the market. This will be particularly apparent in the manufacturing and engineering, construction and IT sectors, but increased demand is likely to be shared across most sections of the economy.
