A new report reveals that the housing and cost-of-living crises are having a major impact on recruitment, with Dublin based companies particularly struggling to find talent due to limited accommodation.
The Morgan McKinley Quarterly Employment Monitor also shows that the market remains "candidate driven" as salaries continue to be under pressure across most sectors, pushed by inflation, skills shortages.
Meanwhile, flexible working remains a priority, with most candidates preferring a hybrid working model. Companies with fully onsite working models face deep challenges in staffing, the monitor added.
The Morgan McKinley report measures the health of the Irish professional jobs market by tracking the number of new job vacancies and new candidates each quarter.
It saw an overall 6.9% increase in the number of new professional job opportunities in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of 2022 across all professional sectors.
But it also noted a decrease of 3.3% in the number of professionals actively seeking new job opportunities compared to the previous quarter.
Trayc Keevans, Global FDI Director at Morgan McKinley Ireland, said there has been a notable and sustained decline in the availability of emerging talent.
"The impact of this is being felt in the employment market with employers struggling to fill entry level and graduate positions as this talent cohort is emigrating due to the lack of housing and the cost-of-living crisis," Ms Keevans said.
"Australia, UK, and Canada were the primary destinations for departing talent over the last quarter, followed by Singapore, Dubai, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands," she explained.
Continental European locations like Spain, France and Germany have also proven popular with new graduates, she added.
She noted that employment permits are being processed at almost double the rate of last year due to a tripling of government staff to reduce the processing times to the current run rate of two to three weeks.
"There is evidence that the largest proportion of these employment permits are going to professionals already in Ireland as companies are more confident that acquiring accommodation won't be a barrier to their taking up the position," Trayc Keevans said.
"In addition, local relocations from the regions to Dublin and from Dublin to regional cities have been proving difficult. Employers are becoming more hesitant to offer a position to someone situated outside of their core location where they have an on-site or a hybrid working model in place," she added.
