A new survey shows that only 7% of companies in the private sector reported job vacancies last month, the lowest percentage since August 2005.
The employment and vacancies survey, carried out by FAS and the ESRI, shows that vacancies in the building sector moved up two points from March to 5%. But the figure for the last three months is still the lowest since the survey started in 2002.
The percentage of industrial firms reporting vacancies dropped four points to 13%, while the figure for services firms dropped four to 10%. The percentage of retail firms reporting vacancies fell from 2% to 1%.
A measure of how employers' view the outlook for the jobs market improved slightly but was still negative. The figure of minus 4% means a higher proportion of companies still expect employment levels to fall rather than rise in the coming months. The figure for the construction sector was a record low of minus 43%.
The outlook among the industry and retail sector also worsened, but the outlook in the service sector increased to plus 6%.
