Galway was the county to experience the greatest increase in job vacancies over the past three months, according to figures published last week.

The third-quarter Jobs Index from online hiring platform Irish Jobs, also revealed that vacancies in domestic sectors such as property, retail, and arts & entertainment outperform internationally traded sectors, such as banking, finance and IT.

It further revealed that the construction and engineering sectors account for more job vacancies than IT sector over the past three months.

And perhaps most telling of all, the share of job vacancies offering fully remote working has fallen to its lowest level in nearly four years – although the data also indicated that hybrid working vacancies remain stable.

Overall the proportion of fully remote job vacancies fell to 1.9% in the third quarter of this year, continuing a trend of falling vacancy levels in the practice over the previous four quarters and indicating a clear reduction in the level of fully remote homeworking in Ireland.

In contrast, the proportion of hybrid working vacancies has remained relatively stable, fluctuating between 11.2% and 12.4% over the past six quarters. This stabilisation indicates that hybrid working will likely remain a more permanent and substantial feature of the Irish labour market than the full-time working-from-home model.

Galway was the county to experience the greatest increase in job vacancies over the past three months.

There was a 14% quarterly increase in jobs vacancies in the county in the third quarter which can be attributed to strong hiring activity in the healthcare, retail and science sectors. Customer/Sales Assistant, Clinical Nurse Manager, and Staff Nurse were some of the most in-demand roles over the quarter.

Across other counties with large cities the outlook is more mixed. A modest quarterly increase in vacancies was recorded in Cork (1.4%), while Q-o-Q decreases were recorded in Limerick (-14%) and Dublin (-10%).

Commenting on the release of the index, Sam Dooley, Country Director of The Stepstone Group Ireland with responsibility for IrishJobs, said that the recent ‘return to the office’ announcements made by large multinationals had caused waves in workplaces – not just in Ireland but around the world.

“Our analysis of job postings offering the working models that emerged during the pandemic reveals two different trends,” he said.

“While fully remote working continues to decline, hybrid working has stabilised, indicating that it looks set to become a long-term feature of the labour market.

“As employers navigate a tight labour market, embedding hybrid working in their offering reflects a clear response to candidate demand for flexible working arrangements,” he added.

Pictured: Report…Sam Dooley, Country Director of The Stepstone Group Ireland.