A LinkedIn report shows that while the rate of people starting new jobs in Ireland is falling, the decline is softer than other European markets.
Workplace social media platform LinkedIn has released new data exploring Ireland’s current hiring market. What was discovered is that Irish hiring rates stalled during the month of January and recorded a “moderate” 7.2pc year-on-year decline.
In Ireland, the rate of decline was shown, however, to be less harsh than that of European counterparts, with the wider EMEA-LATAM grouping experiencing a year-on-year average decline of 12.2pc. Worse still, Italy and the Netherlands reported a decline of more than 16pc and France a decline of more than 17pc year-on-year.
Commenting on the data, LinkedIn Ireland’s country manager Cara O’Leary said: “Despite the stall in hiring, Ireland remains more resilient than many of our European peers. While some sectors might be seeing a lull in new hires, there are other industries that are on the front foot like financial services and healthcare, where opportunity abounds despite the broader cautious jobs market.”
Financial services (up 5.9pc), and hospitals and healthcare (up 5.4pc) are examples of what the report noted as numerous industries displaying ‘green shoots’ evident throughout Ireland.
Mobility and AI
The demand for flexible working opportunities was also shown to have increased, as Ireland saw the highest level of remote job postings offered (10.9pc), coming second in Europe for the proportion of hybrid positions advertised. The report said that despite accounting for 10.9pc of all job postings, applications for remote roles accounted for 18.5pc of all applications, highlighting the pulling power of flexibility for attracting talent.
O’Leary said: “Our latest data continues to show the magnetic power of flexible work to attract prospective talent. Ireland dominates the European ranks for remote job postings and coming a close second for hybrid roles. The volume of applications for remote positions underlines their desirability and sends a clear signal that flexibility is a key differentiator to hiring companies.”
LinkedIn’s data also highlighted a demand for specialised talent in a landscape where it found the ability to work with AI agents among the fastest growing AI engineering skills of 2025. This, the report stated, is reflective of a shift toward autonomous execution for certain tasks.
Similarly, a growth in AI strategy and large language model (LLM) operations was found by the platform to be underscoring organisations’ investments into specialised workflows, noting that the net result is that AI engineering talent now hold a mobility premium, and due to highly portable skills are eight times more likely to move across borders than the average LinkedIn member.
O’Leary said: “Employers are eying up specialist talent, particularly professionals with expertise in AI agents, AI strategy and LLM ops. Given that many of these roles did not exist five years ago, AI professionals are in a position to command a clear premium.
“For example, AI engineering professionals are significantly more mobile than the wider workforce, with our previous data showing Ireland to be a net beneficiary of AI migration.”
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