Irishjobs in the News

24/04/2008
The Newsletter

Agreement a boost to employment

INCREASING confidence among people looking for jobs and the business community itself has been a major consequence of the Good Friday Agreement and the establishment of the devolved Assembly. Published on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the agreement, statistics from online recruitment website NIJobs.com. show greater movement with the workforce and a complementary increase in the number of jobs available.

The company’s statistics show that the number of people seeking jobs through its website increased by 32 per cent from January 2007-08, while jobs rose by 39 per cent over the same period.

“Over the past decade, since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, business confidence here increased to reach a high point in 2006 and 2007, as the political institutions were restored,” said Peter McMonagle, NIJobs.com general manager.

“Unemployment has fallen sharply and the unemployment rate has seen Northern Ireland go from being the region with the highest rate in the UK to nearly the lowest.

That translated into jobs for 100,000 people in the last decade, he said, with the main retail multiples investing significantly and tradeable services attracting external investors in specialist call-centre and IT businesses.

“Northern Ireland jobseeker behaviour appears to reflect this increase in confidence, with factors such as job mobility and competitive salaries contributing to the desire to climb the career ladder more quickly.

“The average job is currently held for between two to three years, which is a huge change from the days when a job was a job for life.”

-ENDS-