There was a 16.2% increase in job openings in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the final quarter of 2025, according to the latest employment monitor from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley.
The research also found that job seeker activity rose by 36% quarter on quarter and 19% year on year.
"Employers are continuing to hire across much of the professional landscape, but they are doing so with greater caution, longer hiring processes, tighter control over permanent headcount and a stronger emphasis on sector specific experience, immediate capability, and long-term fit," the report found.
"Salary movement has also become more restrained across many disciplines, while office attendance expectations have tightened, particularly in Dublin and in more structured or regulated environments," it added.
The employment monitor found that the strongest demand was concentrated around roles tied to regulation, risk, transformation, automation, and delivery, rather than broad based expansion.
"Across sectors, employers applied greater scrutiny to permanent appointments, interview processes became longer, salary expectations were tested earlier and in office requirements increased," said Trayc Keevans, Global Foreign Direct Investment Director at Morgan McKinley.
"At the same time, candidate movement picked up, but moving jobs is no longer producing the kind of uplift many professionals would have expected in previous years. In several parts of the market, the balance has shifted back towards employers," Ms Keevans said.
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The employment monitor found that geopolitical uncertainty is influencing behaviour, though not in a uniform way.
In some sectors, it is reinforcing caution around permanent headcount and increasing reliance on contract hiring. In others, it is heightening concern around supply chains, energy, cost control, and broader planning.
"It is not stopping recruitment, but it is clearly shaping how organisations think about resourcing, timing, and commitment," the report found.
