FAS ESRI Employment and Vacancies Survey: January 2007

FAS ESRI Employment and Vacancies Survey: January 2007

15 February 2007

• Economy-wide vacancies increased, with 20% of firms in the private sector reporting vacancies compared to 13% in the previous month;
• The increase in economy-wide vacancies was driven by a rise in reported vacancies across all sectors surveyed;
• The largest vacancy increases were in the construction and services sectors where the percentage of firms reporting vacancies increased to 19% and 27% respectively;
• Reported vacancies in the industry sector increased by three percentage points to 20%, while in the retail sector reported vacancies rose to 6%;
• The Net Employment Expectations indicator for all sectors fell to -1% from 4% in the previous month, indicating that the percentage of employers expecting a fall in employment levels in their firms over the coming months is 1 percentage point higher than that predicting an increase;
• The Net Employment Expectations indicator for the construction sector improved significantly with 6% more firms in the sector expecting employment levels to rise rather than fall over the coming months; 
• After being pessimistic for the past three months, the industry sector experienced an improvement in employer sentiment regarding future employment levels;
• Following an improvement in the previous month, the expectations of retail employers regarding future employment levels in their firms deteriorated significantly;
• The expectations of service sector employers regarding future employment levels in their firms declined but remained optimistic;
• The most frequently reported difficult-to-fill vacancies in each sector were: