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FAS/ESRI EMPLOYMENT AND VACANCIES SURVEY: April 2008

13/5/08

Key findings of the survey for the month of April 2008:

• The percentage of firms reporting vacancies in the private sector fell by 3 percentage points to 7%, which is the lowest the economy-wide vacancy rate has been since August 2005. This month's fall was driven by a decline in reported vacancies in the industry, retail and services sectors. Compared to this time last year the economy-wide vacancy rate has fallen by 9 percentage points;

• Reported vacancies in the construction sector increased by 2 percentage points to 5%. However, the 3-month moving average, which is a figure that smooths out monthly fluctuations, continued to decline, falling by 2 percentage points to 5%. This is the lowest this figure has been since the survey began in May 2002;

• The percentage of firms reporting vacancies in the industry sector fell by 4 percentage points to 13%, which brings to an end the upward trend that began in January 2008;

• There was a 4 percentage point decline in the number of firms reporting vacancies in the services sector to 10%. The corresponding figure for April 2007 was 25%, which indicates that year-on-year there has been a considerable decline in the number of firms reporting vacancies in the services sector;

• The number of firms reporting vacancies in the retail sector fell marginally by 1 percentage point to 1%;

• The Net Employment Expectations (NEE) indicator for all sectors increased by 3 percentage points to -4%. However, employment expectations deteriorated in three of the four sectors covered by the survey. This -4% NEE indicator means that the percentage of employers expecting a fall in employment levels in their firms over the coming months is 4 percentage points higher than that predicting an increase. Thus, while there has been a slight improvement in employers' employment outlook this month, a higher proportion of firms still expect employment levels to fall rather than rise over the coming months;

• The employment outlook of construction employers' continued to deteriorate with the NEE indicator for the sector falling to -43%. This is the lowest the sector's NEE indicator has been since the survey began in May 2002. Although construction employers were gloomy about future employment in the sector this time last year, this month's NEE indicator suggests that their outlook has become much more pessimistic since then;

• Both industry and retail sector employers' employment outlook declined considerably with each sectors NEE indicator falling by 9 and 4 percentage points respectively to -17% and -11%;

• The service sector was the only sector surveyed that recorded an improvement in their future employment outlook: the NEE indicator for the sector increased by 8 percentage points to 6%. However, there was more optimism in the sector this time last year;

• The most frequently reported difficult-to-fill vacancies in each sector were:

Construction:Quantity surveyors, managers and estimators
Industry: Engineers, managers and general operatives
Retail: Mechanics and sales staff
Services: Accounting and legal personnel