September was a strong month for jobs creation, but there were seven companies in particular that made waves with significant announcements.
The month of September has always been good for jobs creation, and this month was no exception. A total of 2,343 jobs were created, far exceeding the paltry jobs performance in August.
This impressive figure was helped massively by seven companies that really wowed us with large announcements. We elected to define ‘large’ as higher than 100.
The first large announcement of the month was also the largest, as digital transformation firm PA Consulting confirmed that it would take on 400 new recruits over the next five years.
Alchemy also went on a hiring frenzy in Ulster when it confirmed that it would establish a European centre of excellence and increase its employee headcount by 256.
Closer to the border, sports technology firm STATSports revealed that it would make a significant investment in R&D and staff training in Newry, recruiting 237 new employees in the process.
These three announcements contributed to Ulster emerging as the winning province this month in terms of job creation, with two smaller announcements making up a total of 993 jobs created there in September. Normally, Leinster comes out on top, particularly Dublin. Yet surprisingly, Leinster only noted a definite total of 369 jobs, 337 of which were for Dublin.
It’s a welcome surprise, of course; we’ve frequently discussed the need to decentralise Ireland’s economy in the Careers section. If you wanted to hazard a guess as to why Ulster outperformed the rest, the fast-approaching Brexit deadline could be inspiring people to set up shop in Northern Ireland as they forge their post-Leave business strategies.
Leinster’s relatively modest performance is especially surprising given that tech behemoth Microsoft revealed 200 new roles in Sandyford, Dublin. Half of these roles will be in areas such as engineering and AI. Once recruitment is completed, the total Irish headcount for Microsoft will be 2,200.
Professional services firm Deloitte confirmed this month that it will take on 280 graduates across Ireland. Though the company stated that there are available roles at offices in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Belfast and Galway, a location-by-location breakdown was not provided. For this reason, Deloitte’s jobs had to be excluded from provincial counts. This could also explain why Dublin seemed to fare so badly.
The other big winner this month was Galway. Life sciences company Chanelle Group officially opened a new €10m manufacturing facility in Loughrea, aiming to generate 350 roles over the next five years.
Earlier this week, online retail firm Wayfair marked its upcoming 10th anniversary in Galway with the announcement of 200 new positions.
For more on any of these companies that were hiring like crazy in September, check out the links above.
Updated, 3.05pm, 28 September 2018: This article was updated to clarify the amount of jobs announced in Leinster.
