Eire’s employment market ‘steady’, as employers slim focus

Morgan McKinley’s report signifies that AI adoption is reshaping graduate hiring and is rising demand for skilled expertise.

International skilled companies consultancy Morgan McKinley has revealed the Irish Employment Monitor for This autumn of 2025. The report discovered that “the skilled employment market closed 2025 on a steady footing”. It additionally acknowledged that hiring exercise eased seasonally within the closing quarter, broadly per figures taken from the identical interval in 2024. 

With registrations rising by greater than 4pc quarter-on-quarter, candidate engagement elevated because the 12 months drew to a detailed and professionals positioned themselves for brand new alternatives in 2026. The report mentioned: “This improve got here regardless of a modest rise within the unemployment price to 5pc, suggesting a shift in the direction of extra intentional job search behaviour reasonably than labour market stress.”

Altering expectations

There have been famous changes to the workforce, nevertheless, the report talked about that these took “place quietly by way of attrition and contract non-renewals, reasonably than large-scale redundancies”. 

For Trayc Keevans, the worldwide international direct funding director at Morgan McKinley, the final quarter of the 12 months marked a turning level in how organisations strategy hiring efforts. She defined that the previous couple of months of the 12 months point out that the Irish labour market has entered a “extra disciplined and mature part”.

She mentioned: “Employers are usually not pulling again, however they’re being way more deliberate about the place they rent. Demand has narrowed round crucial expertise, skilled expertise and roles that straight help supply, productiveness and development.”

However a key distinction she famous is in how synthetic intelligence (AI) has impacted demand. 

“We’re seeing extra diversified hiring at graduate and entry stage, notably the place automation is changing transactional or junior work, whereas demand for skilled and specialist expertise stays sturdy. AI is reshaping roles reasonably than eradicating them outright, however it’s altering who will get employed and at what stage,” she mentioned.

“Expertise hiring remained resilient in This autumn, underpinned by sustained demand for knowledge, AI, cybersecurity and cloud experience. AI functionality is now anticipated throughout software program growth, structure and undertaking roles, with employers prioritising professionals who can ship real-world implementation reasonably than pilot exercise.” 

It’s her opinion, primarily based on the findings of the report, that candidate behaviour can also be changing into more and more extra intentional. She mentioned that the market is seeing continued inbound curiosity from worldwide professionals, notably within the tech, engineering and controlled monetary areas. However she additionally mentioned that exterior elements, similar to housing constraints and return-to-office necessities, are influencing outbound migration, notably amongst early-career and mid-level expertise. 

“Contract hiring additionally accounted for a major share of exercise, notably late within the quarter, as organisations progressed time-bound initiatives and used remaining budgets. Stricter return-to-office insurance policies in some massive organisations continued to affect candidate behaviour, pushing senior professionals in the direction of contract roles or regional employers.”

The report additionally discovered that the life sciences and engineering sectors had been among the many most energetic areas of the labour market, because of heavy help through capital funding throughout the biopharma, pharma and medtech fields.

“Contract hiring continued to dominate undertaking supply, notably in high quality, validation, automation and engineering roles, permitting organisations to keep up flexibility whereas limiting everlasting headcount.”

Nonetheless, McKinley’s analysis with reference to life science and engineering roles additionally recognized acute expertise shortages persisting in automation, sterility testing and utilities, which was mentioned to put upward strain on charges for area of interest experience and continued worldwide recruitment.

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