Employers in the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland expect the strongest hiring plans among 11 industry sectors surveyed in the latest Manpower Employment Outlook survey, although overall hiring activity is likely to remain sluggish.
The pharmaceutical sector’s net employment outlook is +5pc in the survey and the construction sector’s outlook has stayed static at 0pc, the first time since 2008 employers in the sector have not reported negative hiring intentions.
Of the 600 or so Irish employers surveyed across the 11 sectors, 90pc expected no change in their workforce in the third quarter. Of the polled employers, 4pc anticipate increased hiring and 5pc forecast workforce reductions. The seasonally adjusted net employment outlook of -4pc is relatively stable quarter-over-quarter and is 3 percentage points stronger compared to the third quarter of last year, according to Manpower.
Five sectors stronger
Compared to a year ago, hiring plans are stronger in five industry sectors, notably construction (up 12 percentage points), mining and quarrying (up 11 percentage points), pharmaceutical (up 9 percentage points) and public and social and agriculture, fishing and forestry (both up 7 percentage points).
“Organisations are coping with operational and trading challenges as they progress through the recovery. These results reflect the uncertainty and fluctuations businesses are facing,” said Krissie Davies, Manpower Ireland managing director.
“We are seeing the fears which paralysed job seekers during the recession, such as last in-first out, being replaced by increased confidence and a growing number of individuals are changing jobs.”
