FÁS/ESRI Employment and Vacancies Survey: November 2005

December 15, 2005

15/12/2005

Embargo: 1.00 a.m. Thursday 15 December 2005

Key findings of the survey for the month of November 2005:

Employer sentiment regarding future employment in their firms improved but remains pessimistic;
Overall the percentage of private sector firms reporting vacancies increased significantly with 19 per cent of firms reporting vacancies in November 2005 compared to 12 per cent in October 2005;
The increase in economy wide vacancies was predominantly driven by an increase of 10 percentage points in the proportion of service sector firms reporting vacancies;
The percentage of retail and industry sector firms with vacancies increased slightly;
The construction sector experienced a decline in the percentage of firms with vacancies due to seasonal effects;
The Net Employment Expectations indicator for the industry sector increased in November and employers are now optimistic about future employment levels;
Construction sector employers remained optimistic about future employment levels in their firms;
The services sector experienced a decline in employer expectations, as 5 per cent more employers are anticipating a fall rather than a rise in employment levels;
Employers in the retail sector feel that employment levels will decrease rather than increase over the coming months;
In November the most frequently reported difficult-to-fill vacancies in each sector were: