The need in Ireland for new labour provides job opportunities for women and workers from abroad.
Record numbers immigrated to Ireland this year and experts claim this influx must be maintained to sustain economic growth in the year 2000. Forty five thousand people came from abroad to work in Ireland last year.
Thousands are expected to attend the country's largest ever recruitment fair at the RDS in Dublin.
One Australian job hunter at the High Skills Poll Recruitment Fair says,
Globally, it's getting well renowned now that Ireland's the place to be if you want to get a job.
The recruitment fair began ten years ago and organisers believe that the demand for jobs is no longer just in technology. Caroline Leacy a director at the High Skills Pool Recruitment Fair, says that the labour market is tightening resulting in a huge shortage of workers in all sectors.
Secretaries, mechanics, hairdressers, right throughout the market, you're going to skills a tightening of the market.
Despite the high attendance at the fair, a review of the jobs sector by FÁS predicts a fall in job growth next year. As a result of the slowdown in economic growth, FÁS is predicting a 50 per cent cut in the growth of new jobs. However, FÁS is now in the middle of a Europe wide campaign to keep the number of workers coming to Ireland.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 28 December 1999. The reporter is Colm O'Callaghan.
