The state of Ireland’s employment market

Ireland’s employment landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. Whilst professional job vacancies rose by 10% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter [1], beneath this headline figure lies a more complex story of structural shifts, technological disruption, and growing economic caution that will fundamentally reshape how Irish organisations compete for talent and structure their workforces.

Employers are hiring, yet new job creation fell by nearly 20% in the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year [2]. With an economy in transition, aggregate employment growth masks significant sectoral rebalancing and mounting concerns about long-term sustainability.

The silent slowdown

Fresh data from the Central Statistics Office confirms what accountant Neil Hughes of Azets Ireland has termed a “silent slowdown” [3]. Between January and March 2025, just 100,856 new jobs were recorded, a drop of 24,915 compared to the first quarter of 2024 [4]. Simultaneously, hiring activity slowed by 27.8%, whilst job losses rose to 133,538, an increase of 4.5% year-on-year [5].

Perhaps most telling is the behaviour of workers themselves. The CSO data shows that 2.56 million people stayed in their existing employment in the second quarter, the highest figure in the series [6]. This suggests a workforce increasingly focused on stability rather than opportunity, a marked departure from the buoyant job-switching culture that characterised the post-pandemic boom.

Indeed, job churn, which tracks workforce movement beyond general employment growth or decline, stood at 313,274 in the first quarter, down 1.8% compared to the same period in 2024 [7]. The job churn rate slipped to 11.1%, 0.3 percentage points lower than a year earlier [8]. For organisations, this presents both challenge and opportunity. Whilst employee retention may improve, the reduced movement of talent across the economy could constrain innovation and limit access to new skills.

Dublin’s divergent trajectory

Dublin’s underperformance relative to the rest of Ireland represents one of the most significant shifts in the employment landscape. Job postings in the capital sit 13% below their pre-pandemic baseline, making Dublin the country’s only major hub with postings below pre-pandemic levels [9]. This stands in stark contrast to counties like Kildare, where postings are 29% above their pre-pandemic baseline [10].

Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed, attributes Dublin’s lag to its concentration of “certain white collar occupations”, particularly in technology, which have “softened lately” [11]. The capital’s greater exposure to the tech industry, which has been shedding jobs and experiencing some of the biggest declines in postings, has created a structural disadvantage as the sector adjusts to new economic realities [12].

Yet this geographic rebalancing may prove beneficial in the longer term. Remote and hybrid work arrangements now feature in nearly 17% of national postings, more than four times higher than pre-pandemic levels [13]. This persistence of flexible working models, despite high-profile return-to-office mandates from major employers, suggests firms are “increasingly open” to hiring outside Dublin [14]. The constrained housing market in the capital further reinforces this trend, with remote hiring offering companies favour with harder-to-obtain candidates, especially where talent pools remain tight [15].

The AI impact

Artificial intelligence is emerging as the defining force reshaping Ireland’s professional employment landscape. The impact is most visible in accountancy and finance, where Morgan McKinley’s Trayc Keevans notes that companies are “increasingly leveraging AI capabilities to automate routine tasks such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, credit control, and payroll” [16]. This shift is creating high demand for professionals skilled in tools like SQL and Power BI, particularly in commercial finance roles such as business partners and financial analysts [17].

However, the transformation brings significant risks. A notable trend driven by automation is the reduction in graduate-level hiring by major firms, raising concerns about potential shortages of experienced mid-level professionals that could impact future business operations and growth [18]. The accounting sector’s talent pipeline may be fundamentally disrupted if entry-level positions continue to disappear, creating a hollowed-out profession unable to develop the next generation of senior practitioners.

The adoption of AI tools among Irish workers has grown by 27% in the past year, according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index for 2025 [19]. More than half of workers see AI skills as a career catalyst, with 41% saying it helps them work smarter and a similar proportion believing it will accelerate their careers [20]. Yet access remains deeply unequal; 91% of board-level executives report using AI regularly compared to just 39% of non-managerial staff [21].

This digital divide extends across demographic lines. Just 47% of female workers report using AI tools compared with 63% of men, whilst only 55% of Gen Z staff use AI at work, lower than younger millennials (62%), older millennials (59%), and Gen X workers (47%) [22]. For organisations, this represents both a risk and an opportunity. Companies that provide comprehensive AI training across all levels of the workforce will develop significant competitive advantages, whilst those that fail to democratise access to these tools risk exacerbating existing inequalities and limiting innovation.

Sectoral winners and losers

The impact of technological change and economic uncertainty varies dramatically across sectors. Life sciences and engineering roles remain stable, driven largely by increased automation and compliance requirements [23]. Automation manufacturing has grown significantly, with a 20% increase since the previous year, leading to strong demand for specialised automation engineers [24].

Financial services have maintained consistent hiring across funds, insurance, and banking sectors, with employers particularly focused on roles requiring compliance expertise, including anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer functions [25]. Relationship management positions also remain highly sought after due to the ongoing focus on client retention and service excellence [26].

By contrast, the technology sector presents a more nuanced picture. Whilst recruitment remains robust for cybersecurity specialists, driven by heightened regulatory requirements such as NIS2 and DORA, contract hiring among larger multinational firms has slowed, influenced by tighter cost controls prompting a shift towards permanent positions or offshore staffing solutions [27]. Data from Indeed shows IT operations and helpdesk postings down almost 30% from February 2020 levels [28].

The construction sector faces perhaps the most acute challenges, with persistent shortages of skilled professionals, especially quantity surveyors and project planners [29]. These gaps are amplified by Ireland’s severe housing shortage, procurement bottlenecks, and intensified competition from higher-paying European markets, which continue to attract Irish talent abroad [30].

Talent inflow

Ireland’s reputation as a stable, open economy is fuelling a wave of international talent inflows, particularly from the United States and the Middle East. Matt Fitzpatrick, Executive Director at Marks Sattin Ireland, notes that “there’s been a noticeable rise in interest from the Middle East over the past year, and recently we’ve seen a sharp uptick in U.S. candidates, some leveraging Irish ancestry to make the move” [31].

For Marks Sattin, overseas candidates, including Irish returners, made up over 40% of placements in Ireland in early 2025 [32]. This represents a strategic response to global volatility, with Ireland increasingly perceived as a geopolitical safe haven. However, international interest in Irish jobs dropped slightly between January and April 2025 to 12.3%, down from 14.8% in December 2024, according to Indeed data [33].

The influx creates challenges around remuneration. Ireland’s salary levels remain modest compared to major financial hubs like London or New York, aligning more closely with Amsterdam in terms of compensation [34]. Other European nations such as Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg often present more generous salary offers without necessarily balancing this with lower tax burdens or living costs [35]. For new international entrants, the Irish market poses a necessary trade-off between earnings and overall lifestyle.

Yet Ireland’s attractiveness extends beyond pay. The country boasts a high standard of living, accessible healthcare, excellent schools, and a progressive work culture. The tight labour market continues to support robust wage growth, with year-on-year posted wage growth measured at 4.6% in December 2024, decently above the euro area average of 3.3% [36]. With Irish inflation falling to 1% or less in recent months, workers are seeing substantial real-terms pay growth [37].

Strategic imperatives

The employment landscape facing Irish organisations demands fundamental shifts in strategy. The low level of alignment between HR priorities (which remain focused on talent management, leadership development, and employee experience) and broader organisational priorities around cost management, digitalisation, and productivity suggests a concerning disconnect. As the CIPD’s HR Practices in Ireland report notes, “the profession needs to invest more in looking into the business and to better connect its work with key business challenges” [38].

Four in five HR professionals reported an increase in the impact of their profession in the past 12 months [39]. Yet areas where fewer perceive that the profession brings added value include sustainability (77%) and championing a people-centred approach to technology and AI (63%) [40]. The response to how HR champions a people-centred approach to technology has fluctuated significantly, from 77% in 2023, declining to 53% in 2024, and rising to 63% in 2025 [41]. This volatility suggests the profession is still finding its footing in navigating technological transformation.

Organisations must also grapple with profound shifts in employee expectations and behaviour. A record 38% of Irish workers moved roles in 2025, up from 23% the previous year and 19% in 2023 [42]. This marks Ireland’s most volatile labour market in three years, coinciding with a 13% fall in workplace happiness to 65% [43]. Whilst burnout levels have improved to a three-year low of 39%, 30% of workers plan to look for more flexibility in the coming year [44].

The persistence of remote and hybrid work, despite organisational efforts to increase office attendance, reflects this demand for flexibility. Around 2.6% of all searches for Irish job postings contained remote or hybrid keywords as of the end of December 2024, similar to levels prevailing since 2022 and up around tenfold on pre-pandemic levels [45]. Professional and tech categories including arts and entertainment (50%), media and communications (43%), insurance (43%), and software development (41%) show the highest shares of remote and hybrid postings [46].

Moving forward

The Irish labour market has entered a period of profound uncertainty. The pharmaceutical industry, a pillar of Ireland’s tax base, faces possible headwinds from proposed Trump tariffs, with significant implications for both employment and fiscal stability. More broadly, given Ireland’s trade dependency and reliance on the multinational sector, any changes to US trade or tax policies could potentially harm the Irish economy.

Yet the fundamentals remain strong. The employment rate for people aged 15-64 years reached 74.7% in the first quarter of 2025, up from 73.8% a year earlier [47]. The number of people in employment rose by 89,900 or 3.3% to 2,794,100 [48]. The unemployment rate stood at 4.3%, not far from the 4% rate generally considered nearing full employment in Ireland [49].

For organisational leaders, the challenge is navigating this complex landscape whilst building resilient, adaptable workforces. This requires moving beyond traditional approaches to talent management and embracing more fundamental questions about how work is structured, where it is performed, and what skills will prove essential. The organisations that thrive will be those that democratise access to AI tools, embrace geographic flexibility, invest in comprehensive upskilling programmes, and maintain the agility to respond to continued volatility.