There has been a sharp fall in hiring intentions in the technology, IT, telecom and media sector, according to new research.
The latest Manpower Group Employment Outlook Survey shows that the net employment outlook in the sector for the fourth quarter of the year has fallen by 25 percentage-points compared to the previous quarter.
The report's authors say the decline is primarily driven by a sharp rise in outplacements as tech companies restructure from their hiring boom of early 2022.
Confidence has also been hit by slowing tech sector growth and rising interest rates.
"Businesses that drove hiring confidence in the tech & IT sector over the last year are now having to reduce workers rather than take on new staff for growth," said John Galvin, Managing Director, ManpowerGroup Ireland.
"Layoffs in the tech & IT sector have become much more prominent in the last quarter, a shift driven by large tech companies who may have over-hired coming out of the pandemic as their markets reopened and now find themselves with a surplus of employees, which is now forcing them to divest recent hires and retract some job offers."
"Despite this, hiring overall remains in double digits, driven largely by small and medium sized firms outside the big-tech space," he added.
Overall, Ireland's net employment outlook fell by 12 percentage-points compared to the previous quarter as employers reported their lowest quarterly hiring intentions so far in 2022.
The tech slowdown was felt strongly in Dublin but the employment outlook in the banking and finance sector in the capital remains strong.
Robust outlooks were also recorded in Munster, Connacht and Leinster.
The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey is based on responses from 408 employers across Ireland.
It asks whether employers intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter.
