More Management Needed In Ireland

Ireland needs more managers, according to an employment and vacancies report released on Thursday.

The latest FÁS/ESRI vacancies and employment survey provides information on the percentage of firms that have current vacancies.

According to the report, industry is seriously lacking in new managers, as well as general operatives and sales personnel, retailers also need managers and sales staff, while the service industry has difficulty finding accounting personnel and insurance staff.

Despite the construction industry's present downturn the sector is finding it difficult recruiting quantity surveyors.

However, reported vacancies in the construction sector continue to cause worry for the economy falling by five percentage points to 3%. This is the lowest the vacancy rate has been in this sector since the survey began in May 2002 and demonstrates the loss of jobs available for workers to fill.

The construction industry often acts like a plumb-line to the rest of the economy, and economists are concerned that compared to this time last year, the vacancy rate in the sector has fallen by seven percentage points. Furthermore, the construction sector employers' employment outlook declined substantially with the Net Employment Expectations indicator for the sector falling by 11 percentage points to 42%.

Construction employers were pessimistic about future employment in the sector this time last year, but this month's Net Employment Expectations indicator suggests that their outlook has deteriorated dramatically since then.

Despite this, the economy overall has stayed reasonably consistent. The percentage of firms reporting vacancies in the private sector remained unchanged at 10% although falls in the public sector has left the economy wide vacancy rate down by 5 percentage points on last year.

(DW/JM)