Employers prepare for record hiring frenzy – but 79pc can’t find staff

Irish employers are preparing for a record hiring wave this summer, but a large majority say they are unable to find the staff to fill these vacancies.

According to a survey by recruitment firm ManpowerGroup, 42 per cent of Irish employers are preparing to significantly increase their headcount between July and September.

This is the highest percentage of net hiring intentions reported in 17 years and represents a 10-point increase from the second quarter and a 24-point increase year-on-year.

However, more than 79 percent of employers are struggling to fill vacancies, up seven points from the second quarter of the year.

The construction (+55 percent), real estate (+50 percent), financial (+50 percent) and hospitality (+41 percent) sectors report record-breaking hiring intentions for the July-September period.

Finance & Banking was up 17 points compared to the second quarter and up 40 percent year-on-year.

“Just a year after Ulster Bank and KBC announced they would exit the Irish banking market by the end of 2022, and amid rising inflation, pandemic aftershocks and the economic impact of the conflict in Ukraine, the strong hiring intent in the sector is a big one A vote of confidence for both the Irish financial market and for companies across the economy,” said John Galvin, Managing Director of ManpowerGroup Ireland

The news comes after the European Central Bank warned several global banks that they had not transferred enough senior staff to the EU after Brexit.

Many executives are unwilling to relocate, according to an ECB Desk Mapping survey, while employees point to family reasons and language barriers as reasons not to move to continental Europe.

Dublin is the top post-Brexit location choice for financial firms, according to consultancy EY, but Paris wins in terms of headcount.

Irish employers are the most optimistic about hiring in Europe, with 36 percent of Finnish bosses planning to hire in the third quarter, followed by 35 percent in the Netherlands, Manpower said.

Within Ireland, businesses in Munster were the most optimistic, with 51 per cent expecting to hire in the third quarter, followed by 48 per cent in Dublin – the city’s strongest hiring intention on record.

In Ulster, Connaught and Leinster, the net recruitment intent was 30 per cent.

Manpower’s net employment forecast surveyed 425 employers across Ireland and is calculated by subtracting the number of companies expecting a decrease in hiring activity from the number of companies expecting an increase.